Germany’s IG Metall labor union called on personnel at Volkswagen‘s Porsche sports car brand to stroll off their shifts for about an hour on Thursday as part of its campaign for more pay throughout the engineering market.
The nation’s biggest union is asking for a 6 percent wage increase this year for about 3.9 million employees in the metal and engineering sectors, consisting of the German car industry.
It is entitled to stage walkouts after a non-strike duration ended on Sunday and lots of workers normally respond to its calls for action.
The union, which likewise wants a much shorter working week, prepares to expand stoppages throughout Germany from next Monday to step up pressure on companies before the next round of pay negotiations, due on January 11.
Companies have dismissed the pay claim as excessive and until now offered just a 2 percent raise in addition to a 200 euro ($ 240.50) one-off payment in the first quarter.
Porsche, the second-biggest contributor to Volkswagen group profit, assembles the 911 and Boxster models at its major factory located in Zuffenhausen where the so-called caution strikes have been called.
“The current position of the companies’ lobby is a provocation to employees,” Porsche works council chief Uwe Hueck wrote in an email.
“The metal and engineering industry has never before made so much revenue. That’s why there is only one suitable response: Warning strikes.”
The Suedwestmetall employers’ lobby in Baden-Wuerttemberg, where Porsche, Daimler and parts supplier Robert Bosch are based, knocked the union’s strike strategies.
“The fact that workers are laying down their work already prior to the planned caution strikes on January 8 is irresponsible and is positioning an unnecessary burden on more talks,” Peer-Michael Dick, managing director of Suedwestmetall stated by email.
Numerous hundred workers at companies in Volkswagen’s home-state of Lower Saxony, consisting of Bosch, laid down their tools on Tuesday in support of IG Metall’s demand for higher wages.
