German workers stage strikes in pay dispute

Germanindustrial workers staged strikes at metals and engineering firmsyesterday in support of wage claims by union IG Metall, which announced afurther wave of walkouts for today.With the economy in robusthealth and unemployment at record lows, the country’s biggest union isdemanding an inflation-busting 6% pay hike this year for about 3.9mnworkers, as well as a shorter work week.IG Metall wants workers to have the option to temporarily switch to a 28-hour week in the pursuit of better work-life balance.Evenmore controversially, it wants shift workers and those caring forchildren or elderly relatives to be compensated for some of the salaryloss that would come with clocking up fewer hours.Employers say such a drastic change would be illegal and have threatened to go to court to stop the industrial action.Aheadof regional negotiations due to begin on Thursday, employers have sofar offered 2% plus a one-off €200 ($240) payment in the first quarter.Yesterdaymore than 3,000 employees downed tools at sports car maker Porsche inStuttgart, and around 400 at elevator maker OTIS in Berlin were expectedto do likewise.Night shift workers at automotive supplier Kirchhoffin the industrial heartland state of North Rhine-Westphalia also walkedout, as did personnel at farming machinery maker Claas.“Theemployers provoked these warning strikes with their behaviour at thenegotiating table,” Knut Giesler, head of IG Metall in NorthRhine-Westphalia, said.In the state, also Germany’s most populous,IG Metall has called for stoppages at 143 companies today, includingLumileds, the LED components and car lighting business of Philips, andThyssenkrupp unit Rothe Erde in Dortmund.Up to 700,000 are expectedto join a week of so-called “warning strikes”, a familiar feature of theannual collective bargaining process that sees workers downing toolsfor a few hours to demonstrate at factory gates and in town squares.Industrialaction is scheduled to the south in Bavaria, home to premium carmakerBMW and engineering group Siemens, where the union is threatening toshift from short warning strikes lasting only a few hours to full-daystoppages.The dispute follows a strong year of growth in Europe’slargest economy, driven by domestic demand from record numbers of Germanworkers while borrowing costs and inflation remain low and exportersbenefit from a global recovery.That pattern should extend through 2018, with the Ifo economic institute last month forecasting growth of 2.6% for the year.Talksbetween unions and employers’ associations are set for Thursday in thestate of Baden-Wuerttemberg, where Volkswagen’s Porsche, Mercedes-Benzmaker Daimler and automotive suppliers including Bosch are based.In Bavaria, negotiations will resume on January 15, and in North Rhine-Westphalia on January 18.Thelatter state’s sector employers’ association, Metall NRW, said thestrikes risked damaging Germany industrial companies’ reputation asreliable suppliers.“I expect the union to take action at thenegotiating table and not out in the streets,” Metall NRW directorLuitwin Mallmann said in a statement.IG Metall has not organised a nationwide, open-ended strike in Germany since 2003.Boastingsome 2.3mn members, IG Metall is Europe’s largest trade union,representing workers of all kinds in industrial conglomerates likeSiemens or Thyssenkrupp, steelmaking, the auto industry, electronics andtextiles.The sheer weight of the metal and electrical industries’3.9mn workers often draws other sectors along in its wake when it comesto pay deals – and 2018’s showdown could make for massive changes.Unions are demanding a pay rise of 6% this year.While the figure is triple bosses’ initial offer of 2%, it is a classic starting position to wring out a compromise.Farmore contentious is their other headline demand – the right for workersto switch from 35 to 28 hours per week for up to two years, with theemployer guaranteeing the right to return to full-time work – as well aspaying some of the salary shortfall in certain cases.IG Metall says the proposal would give workers a better quality of life.“Workersaren’t only workers, they have personal lives, children, old parents,all that must be taken into account. Working life can’t only be aboutsacrifice,” Berlin IG Metall chief Olivier Hoebel told hundreds ofstrikers demonstrating in the capital with bibs in the union’s signaturered colour and whistles in hand.Employers fear up to two-thirds ofworkers could be eligible, leaving factory floors bare and prompting anew administrative tangle.And they argue that the change would be unfair to those who have already taken a pay cut when switching to part-time.TheGesamtmetall employers’ federation has blasted the demands and anyindustrial action workers take to achieve them as outright “illegal”,threatening to take the question to court.Industry leaders in metaland electricals – key sectors for the German economy that are inotherwise rude health – are keen to avoid a drawn-out industrialdispute.“In general, strikes are not an appropriate means to resolvesalary disputes. They hurt exports, and thereby the company and in theend the employees,” said Bertram Brossardt, head of the employers’association for the sector in southern state Bavaria.With the Germaneconomy pumped up by strong exports and domestic demand, a labourmarket swept clean of skilled workers and low inflation, most of thecards appear to be in IG Metall’s hand going into the talks.“We needa clear signal from bosses that they’re interested in a solution forthe question of working hours,” IG Metall chief for southwestern GermanyRoman Zitzelsberger said on Sunday.Otherwise, “it will be extremely difficult to get through the talks with just warning strikes”, he cautioned.