IG Metall says a decision to put its wage demands last on a list of requests to employers federation, Gesamtmetall, is a tactic designed to apply sustained pressure.
The union – which this week saw 600,000 of its members walk out in a series of warning strikes – is due to meet the employers in Baden-Wurtenburg next week in a bid to resolve the dispute that has now dragged on for weeks.
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IG Metall has demanded an ambitious 6.5% pay rise for its members – a large number of whom work in the automotive sector.
The pay request has been given added momentum this week however, with comments by German Federal Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble that the country could afford ‘some wage increase,’ although his office stressed to just-auto this did not specifically refer to IG Metall.
“The money situation will be kept up to the [last] moment,” an IG Metall spokesman told just-auto from Frankfurt. “It is a tactical idea to keep it to the last minute.”
What appears to be really irking IF Metall however, is what it refers to as its demands for more “co-determination” with Germany’s highly influential works councils when it comes to the contentious question of agency workers.
“This question is the most difficult,” said the IG Metall spokesman. “IG Metall demands more co-determination on works councils in the question of how and when the conditions of using agency workers [are].
“The works council can say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ if companies use those personnel.”
