With the warning strikes they want to increase the pressure again in the ongoing negotiations with the employer about higher wages. According to the representative of IG Metall Ostbrandenburg, Holger Wachsmann, there was a hundred percent participation at the company locations, and some employees had also come from their days off.
Two rounds of negotiations had so far produced no result. The union is demanding 8.2 percent more money in the collective bargaining round. In the first negotiation, the employers had offered a one-off payment of 2,100 euros. IG Metall rejected this offer as completely inadequate. In addition, the union is calling for the extension of the collective agreements on partial retirement, the use of work contracts and job security.
Around two million tons of steel are produced each year in the ArcelorMittal steelworks at the Eisenhüttenstadt site. ArcelorMittal employs around 2,500 people at the Eisenhüttenstadt site and has around 150 trainees.
“In recent years, the colleagues have only received one-off payments, the last wage increase was in 2019 and the profits in the steel sector are exorbitantly high,” stated Wachsmann. He did not rule out further industrial action. “If we are not heard, the colleagues are perfectly willing to carry on.” The trade unionist did not rule out a ballot in the absence of a new offer from the employer.
According to union information, 250 employees also went on strike in a metal processing company in Ilsenburg (Saxony-Anhalt). “Steel workers will not be fobbed off with a one-off payment,” stressed Birgit Dietze, IG Metall negotiator for Steel East.
On the EURONEXT, the ArcelorMittal share temporarily rose by 2.29 percent to EUR 30.315.
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