Wage negotiations in Germany continue today after unions and employer representatives failed to reach an agreement yesterday.
Negotiations in the key state of Baden-Württemberg may continue for several days, according to Automobilwoche.
One IG Metall negotiator told the newspaper said that this is the last chance to come to an agreement without strike. He estimated that the likelihood of an agreement was 50:50. An employer representative thought there was a good chance of a solution.
At the beginning of the talks IG Metall had been threatening strike action if employers would not agree to demands for a 6.5% pay increase for 3.4 million workers in metal working industries. “Either we come to an agreement in the next few days or we will decide mid-May whether there will be a battle, said IG Metall representative, Berthold Huber in an interview with a local German newspaper.
Employers are offering a 2.5% pay increase and a performance bonus of 0.5%.
A compromise could be reached by adjusting the duration of the agreement. IG Metall said that it would not accept a pay increase below five percent if the agreement were to last for 18 months. The metal working union is under pressure to accept an increase similar to that of the chemical industry, which has agreed to a pay increase of 3.6% and a one-off payment, to cover an 18 month period.
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