The main German automotive industry union, IG Metall, is demanding a pay increase of eight percent in the collective bargaining round for the metal and electrical industries. The negotiations affect around 3.6m employees across a variety of industrial sectors.
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This is the highest pay demand for 16 years. The last time unions asked for a pay rise higher than this was in 1992 when they demanded 9.5%, reported the German press agency, dpa.
According to union leader, Berthold Huber, the reasons for such a high claim include, rising price rises, productivity improvements, and the need to reestablish some kind of equilibrium given that management salaries and company profits have risen a lot, while workers have not seen any benefit.
Huber has made it clear that with such a high pay demand, the agreement must be higher than last year. Last year IG Metall demanded a 6.5% rise and received 4.1%. This was supplemented with a further 1.7% at a second stage.
