66,000 VW employees went on a ‘warning strike’ on Monday, said their union IG Metall on Tuesday.
A union statement continued: ‘The employees are making a statement for their demands in the current wage movement.
‘The wage negotiations are overshadowed by plans by the company’s top management to implement massive savings through job cuts – even plant closures are not ruled out.
‘The VW general works council chairwoman, Daniela Cavallo, had clear words for the thousands of employees at a rally about the warning strike in front of the company headquarters.’
‘She said: “If we have to, then we will carry out a labour dispute that suits the Volkswagen family: united, with enormous determination and with the certainty that it will be worth it.”
‘In her speech, the works council chairwoman sharply attacked the management board and the shareholder families of the group.
‘Since 2014, the two Porsche and Piëch families alone, as major shareholders, have received billions in dividends.
‘A skilled worker at VW would have to do “hard, honest industrial work” for 100,000 years to earn such a sum.
‘The district manager of IG Metall in Lower Saxony, Thorsten Gröger, also had clear words. “Today’s strike at almost all locations is hurting Volkswagen,” said the IG Metall negotiator on Monday. “But that is just a warning. The negotiations will only progress if the management board and shareholders also make a contribution.”
‘The previous collective bargaining negotiations between IG Metall and Volkswagen AG did not result in a breakthrough.
‘In the last collective bargaining negotiations in November, the VW board was prepared to negotiate the concept of IG Metall and the VW General Works Council, which would, among other things, bring savings in labour costs of 1.5 billion euros.
‘However, the VW board still does not want to rule out site closures and mass layoffs. VW is also demanding a flat-rate wage cut of 10 per cent and a pay freeze for the 2024 collective bargaining round, the cancellation of the monthly collective wage allowance (167 euros), the abolition of anniversary bonuses for long-term employees and a massive reduction in training capacity.
‘Gröger previously criticised: “We explained our overall concept in the collective bargaining and went on the offensive ourselves. The company is prepared to negotiate on this basis, but is still keeping the option of plant closures and mass layoffs open.”
‘The warning strikes threatened as a result have now been put into action.
‘Instead of clear-cutting, IG Metall and the VW General Works Council propose in their overall concept:
‘The upcoming wage increase at VW is to be temporarily paid into a solidarity fund for the future as working hours.
‘This would give the company an instrument to flexibly reduce working hours if necessary.
‘If the structural change in production or administration leads to under-utilisation, the fund would help to continue to make staff cuts socially acceptable.
‘The employee side would also be willing to discuss the introduction of parts of the profit-sharing scheme over a two-year period in return for a comprehensive package of new security.
‘However, part of the employee side’s overall plan at Volkswagen must be that the board of directors, management and shareholders accept significant cuts in order to invest in the future of the car manufacturer.
‘At the same time, the union expects that prospects will be created for all locations and that new job security will be put in place.
‘The next collective bargaining session is scheduled for December 9.
‘The collective bargaining agreement at VW applies to the six locations of Volkswagen AG (Braunschweig, Emden, Hanover, Kassel, Salzgitter and Wolfsburg) as well as to the VW subsidiaries Financial Services, Real Estate and dx.one GmbH.’
- IG Metall has achieved a pilot negotiation result for employees in the metal and electrical industries.
After a one-off special payment of 600 euros until February 1, 2025, monthly wages will increase by 2 per cent from April 2025 and by a further 3.1 per cent from April 1, 2026.
In addition, IG Metall implemented a ‘social component’ by increasing the annual ‘collective agreement supplementary pay’ (T-ZUG B, ZUB) from the current 18.5 per cent of the basic wage in the respective collective bargaining area by 8 percentage points to 26.5 per cent from February 2026.
Employees in lower pay groups will benefit more from this.
In addition, IG Metall achieved more days off for more employees when choosing between time and money in the collective bargaining supplementary pay (T-ZUG).
140 euros more for trainees from January, a further 3.1 per cent from April 2026.
For the 230,000 trainees in the metal and electrical industries, IG Metall pushed through a wage increase of 140 euros from January 1, 2025.
From April 2026, training wages will increase by a further 3.1 per cent. In addition, the social partners agreed in a joint declaration to promote democracy among young people.
The collective agreement on wages negotiated by the IG Metall districts of Bavaria and the coast runs until October 31, 2026.
The collective agreement was preceded by a large wave of warning strikes. Since October 29, IG Metall has mobilised a total of over 620,000 warning strikers to temporarily gather outside the factory gates.
The IG Metall districts of Bavaria and the coast reached the negotiation result on November 12th in the fourth round of negotiations in Hamburg. IG Metall and regional employers’ associations have now negotiated the adoption of the collective bargaining result in all collective bargaining areas:
Bavaria; coast; Baden-Württemberg; North Rhine-Westphalia; middle group (Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland); Thuringia; Saxony; Berlin-Brandenburg; Saxony-Anhalt; Lower Saxony; Osnabrück-Emsland-Grafschaft-Bentheim.
An engineer in Stuttgart (pay group 12) will earn 97.50 euros more per month from April 2025. In the following year, i.e. 2026, she will earn 154.50 euros more thanks to the 3.1 per cent increase.
If you add up all the special payments and the performance bonus, she will have an additional annual income of 1,950 euros in 2025 compared to 2024 and a full 2,540 euros more gross in 2026 compared to 2025.
A trainee in the second year of training in Emden, for example, will earn 1,366 euros from January with the monthly increase of 140 euros.
In the future, employees who are under greater pressure will more often have the opportunity to convert money into time (‘collectively agreed leave of absence’). And in the future, part-time employees will finally be able to apply for additional days off without restrictions.
Children: Until now, parents of children under 8 years of age could choose days off. In the future, this will be possible for children under 12 years of age. There will also be significantly more days off.
Care: Employees who care for relatives can now also choose five years more time – two times 8 days plus three times 6 days.
Shift work: Employees in rotating shifts can now, just like employees in 3-shift and night shifts, choose 8 days off per year after 5 years of service and 3 years in shift work – without any limit.
Part-time: In future, all part-time employees will be able to choose their days off, including those working shifts where full-time work was previously required – and also employees who were already working part-time before 2019.
The deadline for applying for free T-ZUG days for 2025 has been extended for all newly eligible employees until January 31, 2025.
From 2026, the collective agreement supplementary allowance B (T-ZUG B or additional amount) will rise from 18.5 per cent of the basic wage in the respective tariff area – currently around 630 euros in the coastal and Bavarian tariff areas – to a flat rate of 26.5 per cent of the basic wage, around 900 euros (slightly more or less in the other tariff areas).
As a result, the lower pay groups will receive significantly more in percentage terms than the upper pay groups in relation to their individual monthly wage.
IG Metall has thus achieved its goal of a ‘social component’ that particularly benefits lower-income employees.
However, the T-ZUG B will no longer be paid out in July with the T-ZUG A, as was previously the case, but in February – in exchange for the transformation money (T-Money), which will now be paid out in July.
In a joint statement, IG Metall and the employers’ association Gesamtmetall are calling on politicians to set the right course as quickly as possible in order to improve Germany’s competitiveness in international comparison.
The structural problems have increased the challenge of securing locations and jobs and developing new employment prospects in the company, the industry and the region.
