ZF Friedrichshafen, which supplies transmission systems to BMW, has resumed limited production at its plant in Brandenburg despite ongoing strikes, the company said on Tuesday, according to Dow Jones.
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About 300 of the 1,000 employees normally employed at the plant reported for work on Monday and produced about 210 gearboxes, ZF Friedrichshafen spokesman Peter Vogler told the news agency. Normal daily capacity at the plant is about 800.
Employees again came to work on Tuesday, though Vogler didn’t have exact numbers, Dow Jones said, adding that labour Union IG Metall put the number of staff at the plant on Tuesday at about 150.
“Yesterday a few gearboxes, whose assembly was begun before the strikes, were completed. But today production is at a standstill despite the strike breakers, because important parts are missing,” IG Metall strike organiser Klaus-Dieter Kettler said in a statement cited by Dow Jones.
IG Metall, which represents manufacturing workers, is demanding that employers in eastern Germany reduce the working week to 35 hours from 38, in line with standards in more prosperous western Germany, the news agency’s report noted.
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By GlobalDataMissing gearboxes from ZF’s Brandenburg plant have halted assembly of 1,800 BMW 3 series cars a day elsewhere in Germany, Dow Jones added.
Production of the 3 series is continuing in South Africa, where the company has a larger inventory of parts, BMW spokesman Michael Rebstock told Dow Jones, adding that the southern hemisphere plant isn’t immediately at risk of being shut down.
Dow Jones said strikes have also halted production of DaimlerChrysler’s Mercedes-Benz Vaneo minivan and the Volkswagen Golf.
