Collective bargaining in the metal and electrical industries can begin: IG Metall has notified employers of the required termination of the wage collective bargaining agreements and submitted its demands: We want an 8 percent pay increase.
In many regions, metalworkers marked the handover with protests—for example, in Hamburg: There, around 150 members of the bargaining committee and delegations from various companies marched to the “Haus der Wirtschaft,” the headquarters of the employers’ association Nordmetall (photo above). There, they symbolically presented their wage demand—along with a sweater—to Nordmetall’s CEO, Nico Fickinger (far right in the photo). The message: Employers need to “bundle up” for the wage negotiations.
“With prices rising sharply—for energy and food, for example—employees have high expectations,” clarified Daniel Friedrich, district director of IG Metall Küste. “People need to see a decent pay raise.”
Negotiations begin on September 12
Terminating the existing collective bargaining agreements is a prerequisite for negotiating new ones.
The current collective bargaining agreements will remain in effect for one month after termination; after that, the peace obligation will continue for another four weeks, until October 28. Warning strikes are permitted thereafter.
Collective bargaining negotiations in the metal and electrical industries between IG Metall and the regional metal employers’ associations will begin on September 12 in Lower Saxony, followed on September 14 by Baden-Württemberg, Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony, Saarland, and Thuringia. Negotiations will begin on September 15 in Bavaria, Berlin, and Brandenburg; on September 16 in the Coastal collective bargaining region (Bremen, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Hamburg, Lower Saxony’s North Sea coast, and Schleswig-Holstein); and on September 19 in Saxony-Anhalt.
IG Metall has planned numerous demonstrations and actions to mark the start of negotiations.
