No agreement – negotiations broken off again: metal workers’ strike!

The unions said on Monday evening that the offer for wage and salary increases was still significantly too low, on average at 6 percent. One-day strikes will now take place in around 200 companies from Tuesday to November 17. At the start, companies such as ISI, Welser Profile, Greiner, Grass and Collini will go on strike. For example, Andritz, Jenbacher, Liebherr, Schindler, Otis and Kone will follow on Wednesday. Voest, Engel and Bosch, among others, will come on Thursday.

Given the high double-digit price increases, the real wage losses for employees would be enormous, the employee side justified the temporary halt to negotiations. “After a seven-week negotiating marathon, there is still no willingness among employers to put a fair offer on the table for sustainable wage and salary increases,” said the two chief employee negotiators, Reinhold Binder (PRO-GE) and Karl Dürtscher (GPA). “The willingness to strike is enormous and they feel it now.”

Strike statistics in the metal sector show two major work stoppages in the recent past: in 2011 there were strikes in approximately 200 companies with 100,000 employees and in 2018 in more than 240 companies with more than 70,000 employees.

The strike goals include: An 11.6 percent wage and salary increase. The payment of strike hours by the striking companies. A new date for the hearing will be agreed.

Last bid average 8.2%
The representatives of the metal technology industry called the unions’ actions “irresponsible and disproportionate.” Employers recently offered an average of 8.2 percent more wages, consisting of sustainable, socially distributed wage increases of an average of six percent (2.7 percent plus a monthly fixed amount of 130 euros as a sustainable wage or salary increase). as a tax exemption One-off payment of 1200 euros net. For the lowest occupational group, the wage increase would even amount to twelve percent, according to the employers.