2023-11-22 13:17:30
The employers in the metal technology industry (FMTI) find it “grotesque” that the unions are striking for a collective agreement increase when three out of four employees would already have a wage increase of 11.6 percent under the industry’s proposals. “The workers are striking for the higher earners,” said FMTI chief negotiator Stefan Ehrlich-Adám on Wednesday. An average wage increase of 8.2 percent is offered, and for the lower employment groups up to 12 percent.
However, these increases also include one-off payments, which the unions reject because they would not be accepted in next year’s collective bargaining negotiations. FMTI chairman Christian Knill did not want to specify to journalists today how many of the approximately 135,000 employees in the metal technology industry fall into the lowest income groups. Also on the table is the employer’s offer to improve the last offer once more if there are changes to the framework law, such as a reduction in overtime bonuses. A longer calculation period than one year is also desired; this is quite common in many other Western European countries.
Ehrlich-Adám has a clear position on the strikes: “We are opposing the strikes with all the means at our disposal. Any form of unacceptable obstruction or blockage will be reported. It is also clear that the strikers will not have any compensation for the period of the work stoppage The unions are responsible for receiving wages.” There will also be no money from employers for the work stoppages that have already taken place. In any case, the strikers would have lost wages. “The unions also have to actively communicate this so that the employees don’t get a nasty surprise when the payroll arrives at the end of the month,” emphasizes Ehrlich-Adám.
The FMTI is ready to negotiate at any time, but the PRO-GE and GPA unions only have time for the eighth round of talks for the KV 2024 next Thursday. The employers have now made ten proposals, and only two have come from the employee representatives so far. The union recently reduced its demand for an 11.6 percent wage increase to 10.6 percent.
Knill complained that the unions have been blocking any agreement for over eight weeks and have forgotten that eight out of ten euros in the metal technology industry are earned abroad, where there is corresponding global competition. Furthermore, the 1,200 companies in the industry are mostly medium-sized family businesses and large, unlisted corporations. In the first half of this year there was a six percent decline in productivity, so there is no increase in productivity to distribute. “We all have to accept a small loss of prosperity this year,” said Knill and added: “We will not change our position through strikes.”
Employers today rejected a reduction in working hours because this would also cause costs. Knill is skeptical regarding forecasts that the economy has already bottomed out; incoming orders do not indicate this.
The business-oriented “Senate of the Economy” also spoke out today. Although real wages have fallen slightly in the past two years, these declines have been “more than offset” by the federal government’s anti-inflation measures. The Industrial Association (IV) today called for a “willingness to compromise on the part of the employees”.
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