DSSELDORF (dpa-AFX) – After difficult negotiations and warning strikes, IG Metall and employers have agreed on a new collective agreement for most of the German steel industry. On August 1, wages and salaries are to rise by 6.5 percent, as the steel union and employers’ association announced on Wednesday morning in Dsseldorf. The contract runs for 18 months and starts in June. For the first two months, employees receive a total of 500 euros as a one-time payment, trainees 200 euros.
The collective agreement applies to North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony and Bremen, where 68,000 people work in the industry. The collective bargaining partners in East Germany are likely to adopt the guidelines. In order for the collective agreement to come into force, the approval of the collective bargaining committee of IG Metall is still required. In the coming weeks, a picture of the mood in the workforce will be obtained in the companies, after which the union should give its final commitment – that this will happen is considered almost certain. The employer side has already approved the paper.
In recent weeks, thousands of workers in cities such as Salzgitter, Bremen, Bochum and Duisburg have taken part in warning strikes to persuade employers to give in. They had recently offered an increase of 4.7 percent for a term of 21 months. IG Metall, on the other hand, had asked for 8.2 percent more money for a one-year term. After a nine-hour fourth round of negotiations, early Wednesday morning the bargaining parties came together roughly in the middle of these positions.
Gerhard Erdmann, executive board member of the Steel Employers’ Association, said after the agreement that the wage increase was “on the upper edge of what is just about acceptable”. It is hoped that the economic risks – such as the global supply chain problems and the consequences of the Ukraine war – will not have a full impact on the steel industry. “Should that happen, the collective bargaining partners must find solutions.”
The IG Metall district leader NRW Knut Giesler was satisfied. “In times of high inflation, we achieved a negotiation result that immediately brought a significant plus of 6.5 percent into the wallets of the employees.” It is the highest percentage increase in the steel industry in 30 years. “With this result, the employees get their fair share of the very good economic situation in the industry at the moment.”
The old, expired collective agreement was agreed in March 2021, when IG Metall put the volume of the increases at around two percent and spoke of real wage increases. A look back shows how times have changed: Back then, inflation wasn’t a big issue – it’s completely different today./wdw/DP/stk
Leverage must be between 2 and 20
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