Munich (dpa/lby) – The union and employers are starting collective bargaining for the 855,000 employees in the Bavarian metal and electrical industry in Nuremberg today. The IG Metall trade union is demanding an eight percent increase in salaries for a contract period of twelve months. Employers consider this requirement excessive.
“Most companies can pass on the increased prices, people can’t,” said Bavaria’s IG Metall district chief Johann Horn. The union wants to accompany the start of collective bargaining with a demonstration by workers.
Bertram Brossardt, Managing Director of the Association of the Bavarian Metal and Electrical Industry, dismissed the demand for eight percent more wages as excessive: “War, energy and gas crises, supply chain problems, structural change and the corona pandemic had and still have a devastating impact on the economy economic performance of our companies,” he said.
In other federal states, the first collective bargaining talks have already started, for example in the district of Lower Saxony/Saxony-Anhalt in Hanover. Almost four million people work in the industry nationwide. The regional wage agreements expire nationwide on September 30th. Warning strikes are possible after October 28. As a rule, a pilot district is agreed in the course of the negotiations, which the other regions then take on to conclude.
The degrees in the metal and electrical industry are followed with great interest by economists. They allow conclusions to be drawn about the development of purchasing power and inflation for the entire German economy.
