Germany’s biggest trade union calls for strike over pay

Germany's biggest trade union, IG Metall, announced Monday it was calling on some 3.9 million metalworkers to briefly walk out to back its demand for a seven-percent pay rise.

The warning strike will begin at midnight on Tuesday (2300 GMT on Monday), the powerful trade union said in a statement and is expected to last several hours.

IG Metall says it is trying to soften the blow of inflation for workers in the key electrical and metalworking sectors of Europe's biggest economy.

"The employers' salary offer is insufficient," said Knut Giesler, head of IG Metall's negotiating team in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, adding that "the first pay rise should come before July 2025", the date suggested by employers in stalled talks on a new collective bargaining agreement.

Bosses in the metalworking sector had offered a rise of 3.6 percent over 27 months, with a first rise of 1.7 percent coming in July 2025.

They said that low orders and production levels meant that higher salaries were not possible.

Demonstrations were expected to accompany the strikes at Volkswagen's factory in the northwestern city of Osnabrueck, which is covered by a collective pay agreement for the metalwork sector.

On Monday VW staff representatives told workers that the ailing car giant was planning to close at least three factories in Germany and cull tens of thousands of jobs.

Giesler said that the warning strikes were aimed at putting "pressure" on employers and getting "a quick result".

Stefan Wolf, head of the metalwork employers' association, told the T-Online website that the warning strikes "do not make an agreement easier" but that he nonetheless "can see a good basis for fair talks to continue".

"Given that the economic situation is deteriorating almost every week, the union also has an interest in striking a deal quickly," Wolf said.

A third round of pay talks will take place on Tuesday in the northern cities of Kiel and Hanover.

It is customary for a "pilot" deal to be struck in one federal region which can then serve as a template for the others.