Image: Reuters
As the PRO-GE union announced, around 80 works meetings across Austria were scheduled for Monday. Around 300 employees from elevator manufacturers Schindler, Otis, Kone and TK Elevator gathered at the ÖGB headquarters.
The primary aim of these company meetings was, as the union announced on Friday, to obtain “precautionary resolutions for union action”. In other words: If there is no agreement at the next collective agreement negotiations on November 2nd, measures will be taken from November 6th. Whether these are just warning strikes or longer strikes depends, among other things, on the position of the employers, the union said.
- More on the topic: Metaller-KV: Works meetings after a failed 3rd round
Numerous company meetings planned
But numerous company meetings are also planned in the following days. The union speaks of more than 100 meetings a day at which similar decisions can be expected. Today alone, Monday, company meetings are taking place at Tyrolit, Berndorf, Internorm, Palfinger and Voestalpine Automotive, among others. Tomorrow, the works councils and the union will inform the employees at Miele, Liebherr, BMW Motoren, Magna-Steyr and Schoeller-Bleckmann about the current situation in the negotiations between the PRO-GE and GPA unions and the Metal Technology Industry Association (FMTI).
Bumpy negotiations
The trigger for these company meetings was the hitherto bumpy course of collective bargaining negotiations. Initially, employer representatives canceled the negotiations at short notice due to anonymous threats, and then the talks that were resumed afterwards were broken off after a short time without any results. The positions were too far apart.
- Metaller-KV: Third round canceled after a bumpy start
The employer representatives from the Metal Technology Industry Association (FMTI) stuck to their previous offer on Friday, while the employee representatives from the PRO-GE and GPA unions saw this as “not willing to conduct serious negotiations.” From the employer side, it is said that the union also needs to move. After all, the industry is currently in recession.
The unions want 11.6 percent more wages for the metal workers, the employers’ offer is 2.5 percent and a one-off payment of 1,050 euros. Together with the government’s anti-inflation measures, this would cover inflation, argues the employers’ side.
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