First metal warning strikes in the north on Saturday

With the end of the peace obligation in the collective bargaining conflict in the metal and electrical industry, the first warning strikes by IG Metall also start in the north. The union called on night shift workers at three companies in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein to stop working in protest at what they considered to be inadequate employer offers. After these actions, IG Metall wants to extend the warning strikes in the coming week, as the union's coastal district announced on Friday in Hamburg. "Work stoppages are planned in all five northern German states."

According to the union, workers at the Speira aluminum smelter in Hamburg, the automotive supplier GKN Driveline in Kiel and the pump manufacturer Flowserve SIHI in Itzehoe were called on Saturday at midnight to walk out. "The employees expect percentages instead of one-off payments, and they have had enough of differentiation and waivers," said district manager Daniel Friedrich. "Together we will take our demand for eight percent more money onto the street."

Parallel to other districts, the third round of negotiations was held in Bremen on Thursday. For the first time, the employers submitted an offer that included a one-off payment of 3,000 euros and an unspecified increase in pay. "Except for the one-time payment of 3,000 euros, the employers remain vague," Friedrich had criticized after the round. "And for this they demand automatic differentiation and also the possibility of canceling the Christmas bonus in the companies, and demand a record term of two and a half years. What we miss above all is an offer for a permanent table increase.

In the coastal district, negotiations are being held for around 130,000 employees in Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Hamburg, Bremen and north-western Lower Saxony. The fourth round was scheduled for November 10th in Hamburg.

The wind turbine manufacturer Vestas is also on strike. In a three-day online ballot, 88 percent of IG Metall members voted in favor of an open-ended labor dispute in order to force the management of the German Vestas subsidiary to negotiate a collective agreement. "Calls for work stoppages are therefore possible at any time," said the union on Friday in Hamburg. "The colleagues are determined to enforce collectively agreed working conditions through work stoppages," said the negotiator, the Rendsburg IG Metall Managing Director Martin Bitter.

Vestas Deutschland GmbH (Hamburg) had previously confirmed in response to the ballot that started on Tuesday that it had no intention of entering into collective bargaining with the union and instead only wanted to discuss pay issues with the works council. "Vestas firmly believes that freedom of decision with close involvement of the works council elected by Vestas employees has clear advantages over a collective agreement," said a spokesman.

"We do not question the value of collective agreements, but we are firmly convinced that our approach of agreeing remuneration-related issues in trusting cooperation exclusively with our works council is in the best interests of all our employees and the company." The spokesman pointed out pointed out that Vestas had proposed an agreement to significantly increase the salaries of service employees. "However, after discussions with IG Metall, the works council decided not to sign the proposed agreement."

However, in Germany collective agreements are not a matter for works councils. "Remuneration and other working conditions that are regulated by a collective agreement or are usually regulated cannot be the subject of a works agreement," the Works Constitution Act expressly states.

IG Metall has long complained that many suppliers to the wind industry, such as machine builders, are traditionally subject to the collective wage agreement for the metal and electrical industry. In the case of manufacturers and in the service sector, however, the wind industry has so far largely refused to accept binding tariff rules.