Daimler, Audi, Porsche targeted in wage walkouts
Reprints
Print
Respond
FRANKFURT (Bloomberg) -- Daimler was again targeted by walkouts on Wednesday as Germany's IG Metall labor union expanded strikes which are also due to hit Audi and Porsche, as unions seek improved pay and terms in the manufacturing industry.
There was a walkout by 800 employees on the night shift at Daimler's Sprinter van plant in Dusseldorf, according to a statement from IG Metall. The move extended the so-called warning strikes which struck the company's Rastatt, Germany, plant on April 30.
The action comes before planned strikes on Thursday affecting Porsche and Audi. As many as 4,500 workers at Audi's plant in Neckarsulm, where the carmaker builds such models as the A4, A6 and A8, may take part in a stoppage coinciding with an hour-long protest rally by as many as 2,500 Porsche workers in Stuttgart, IG Metall said on Monday.
The union, which represents about 800,000 workers in Daimler's home state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, is seeking a 6.5 percent pay raise, unrestricted full-time hiring at the end of apprenticeships and more say over the employment of temporary workers.
The union rejected as a "provocation" a 3 percent wage increase offered April 19 by the Gesamtmetall manufacturing employers' association Baden-Wuerttemberg branch.
Further strikes planned for Wednesday include protests in Freiburg to feature a motorcade carrying 650 workers from Daimler, General Electric Co., Solar-Fabrik and other metalworking and electronics companies in the area, Marco Sprengler, an IG Metall spokesman in the southern German city, said on April 30.
The next talks between IG Metall and Suedwestmetall, the Baden-Wuerttemberg branch of the employers' association, are scheduled to resume on May 8 and continue on May 15 if needed.
Contact Automotive News
