The employee representatives see themselves strengthened by the warning strikes of the past few days.
On Saturday at 2 p.m., the fifth round of collective agreement negotiations of the metal technology industry started in Eugendorf in the state of Salzburg. The trade unions PRO-GE and GPA had previously put pressure on again with warning strikes in the past few days. The workers’ representatives see themselves strengthened by the strikes, “our negotiating position has improved,” said the APA today shortly before the start of the talks. They want to make “nails with heads”.
The workforce representatives are ready to negotiate late into the night. No deal in this round would mean a temporary strike next week. Shortly before the start of the negotiations, the employers were confident that an agreement could be reached today; after four failed rounds of negotiations, neither side was able to elicit further details.
The collective agreement is being negotiated for around 1,200 companies for November 1, 2021 until the beginning of November 2022; the majority of them are family-owned and export-oriented. The metal industry also includes the automotive supplier industry, which is one of the central branches of industry in Austria (e.g. Magna in Graz, the BMW plant in Steyr, Opel in Vienna-Aspern or ZKW and AVL List).
Most recently, the employees had demanded an increase of 4.5 percent in wages and salaries plus an increase in allowances. The employers had offered 2.75 percent, with the also offered plus in apprentice compensation and shift allowances, they are 3.2 percent, according to their calculation. As a guide: the last inflation rate was 3.2 percent, the one-year inflation rate (retrospective) customary for the negotiations was 1.89 percent. The minimum wage in the metal industry is 2,000 euros gross.
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