FRANKFURT: The German steel workers union said Wednesday it had called strikes after failing to reach a pay deal with management as incomes are squeezed by soaring consumer prices.
A “good increase in remuneration” was justified “in light of rising inflation” said Knut Giesler, IG Metall union boss in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s industrial heartland.
Consumer prices in Europe’s biggest economy rose at a rate of 7.4 percent in April, a record since reunification in 1990 and well above the two-percent rate targeted by central banks.
The union has presented management with demands for an 8.2-percent wage increase in the negotiations, which have been running since April.
A one-off payment of 2,100 euros ($2,237) put forward by management was “not enough”, Giesler said.
As a result, regional IG Metall negotiators had decided to call “warning strikes” at steel works. The coordinated walkouts lasting a few hours are a common feature of German industrial relations.
Germany’s largest union, IG Metall represents 68,000 steel workers in the region, more than three-quarters of those employed in the branch nationally.
The clash came as the cost of living rose precipitously, following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.
Increases in prices for energy and food has driven inflation to multi-year highs.
The European Central Bank has been keeping an especially close eye on the development of wages for fear pay increases could stoke inflation further.
ECB policymakers are plotting a first interest rate hike in July to counter inflation, their first in over a decade.
But some members of the ECB’s governing council are urging the bank to move faster to make up ground on other major central banks, which have already raised their rates.
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