Key facts
- IG Metall is demanding a 5% wage increase from November, job and site safeguards, and profit-sharing in strong sectors.
- Employers proposed a one-off 1% payment in July 2027 and a 1.3% wage increase from July 2028.
- The employers' proposal would let financially troubled companies withhold the one-off payment.
- IG Metall said it is calling walkouts at more than 2,000 workplaces by the end of the week.
- Employers criticized the action as inappropriate sabre-rattling, citing cost pressure and Germany's economic situation.
- IG Metall plans to publish strike participation figures on Friday.
IG Metall stepped up warning strikes across Germany's metal and electrical engineering industry on Monday, November 2, 2026, with workers at companies including Audi, Mercedes-Benz and Tata Steel stopping work, Reuters reported. The stoppages follow the start of temporary warning strikes on Sunday, November 1, 2026, and cover a pay dispute affecting 3.7 million employees.
The union is demanding a 5% wage increase from November, measures to safeguard jobs and production sites, and profit-sharing mechanisms in sectors performing strongly. It dismissed the employers' second-round offer as effectively a pay cut in real terms.
Employers have proposed a one-off payment of 1% in July 2027 and a 1.3% wage increase from July 2028, with the proposal allowing financially troubled companies to withhold the one-off payment. They criticized the action as "inappropriate sabre-rattling" and justified the lower offer by citing the difficult economic situation and high cost pressures facing German industry, according to dpa.
IG Metall said it was calling on thousands of workers to walk out at short notice at more than 2,000 workplaces across the country by the end of the week, dpa reported. It named Koblenz, the Opel site in Kaiserslautern and companies in the Frankfurt area including Vitesco, Procter & Gamble and Rolls-Royce among the starting locations in western Germany, and said Daimler Truck AG and Paul Beier GmbH employees in Kassel were staging temporary walkouts.
The strikes are due to continue throughout the week, with IG Metall planning to publish participation figures on Friday. During the previous bargaining round in 2024, more than 100,000 workers joined strike actions on peak days.