The breakthrough comes in the middle of the night: IG Metall and employers agree on significantly more money for millions of employees.
After twelve hours of negotiations and a threatened breakdown, IG Metall and employers have reached agreement on a collective wage settlement for the German metal and electrical industry.
Wage increases of 5.2 percent from June 2023 and a further 3.3 percent from May 2024 are planned for the industry’s 3.9 million employees over a period of 24 months. In addition, there will be tax-free one-off payments totaling 3,000 euros. The result was announced by both parties early Friday morning in Ludwigsburg near Stuttgart.
Negotiators: “Painful compromise”.
IG Metall district leader Roman Zitzelberger said after the twelve-hour negotiations: “We wrestled and negotiated hard, but in the end there is an acceptable compromise on the table. Colleagues will now finally get the permanent percentage pay increase they deserve.”
Harald Marquardt, chief negotiator for Südwestmetall, spoke of what he called a “painful compromise” that was only acceptable because the long term provided planning security for the companies. In addition, the agreement includes relief for companies in need.
In the view of Stefan Wolf, head of Gesamtmetall, the result is a “hefty advance” on the future upswing. However, he conceded: The agreement was above what the employers actually wanted and what the current situation offered.
“That’s a word”
IG Metall had entered the talks in mid-September with its highest demand since 2008: Eight percent more money for a term of one year. The employers had offered 3,000 euros as a one-time payment during the collective bargaining negotiations. In addition, they had held out the prospect of an unspecified increase in salary scales over a period of 30 months.
After two years, the bottom line would be a pay rise of 8.5 percent, according to IG Metall boss Jörg Hofmann. For a skilled worker, that would be around 7,000 euros more – 3,000 euros of which would be tax-free. “That’s a word.”
Pilot agreement in Baden-Württemberg
After four rounds of negotiations without results, all eyes had turned to Baden-Württemberg for the fifth round on Thursday. IG Metall had given the green light for a pilot agreement in the district, which had also often been a pioneer for collective agreements in the past.
According to the union, both sides had clarified a number of details in advance. The fact that the 3,000 euros are to be tax-free therefore appeared to be undisputed even before the round in Ludwigsburg. However, the duration and amount of possible wage increases were still open.
Termination of talks was on the cards
With these two points the two parties in Ludwigsburg became so entangled that briefly also a break-off of the discussions stood in the area. The employers had a hard time with the large amounts, said negotiator Marquardt. “That was then also almost a dealbreaker.”
According to his counterpart Zitzelsberger, the term and the amount of pay did not match – here, both sides then took another step back and looked for a new starting point. In the end, they got together: “Strikes in the current situation won’t help anyone – neither the employees, who would still have an uncertain future, nor the companies,” said Marquardt.
Union had threatened further strikes
In the event of a failure of the talks, IG Metall had threatened in advance with 24-hour warning strikes as well as strike ballots and area strikes in individual regions. According to the union, around 900,000 employees across Germany had temporarily stopped work by the time of yesterday’s negotiations. Yesterday alone, 100,000 had temporarily stopped work, half of them in Baden-Württemberg.
Collective bargaining this year was dominated by the dramatic rise in prices. While the union had repeatedly backed up its demand with the high burdens for employees caused by inflation, the employers pointed out that many companies were already in a bad way.
The agreement reached in October in the chemical industry has always been used as a comparison. The IG Bergbau, Chemie, Energie (Mining, Chemical and Energy Industrial Union) had agreed with the employers on two tax-free payments of 1,500 euros and two steps of 3.25 percent each. Over a period of 20 months, this results in an average increase of almost 13 percent, according to the union, and can almost compensate for the current high inflation rates.