The chemical-pharmaceutical industry employs 585,000 people. The IG BCE union has now decided on its demands for the collective bargaining round – and is threatening strikes.
With the demand for seven percent more money, the IG BCE union is entering the collective bargaining round for the around 585,000 employees in the German chemical and pharmaceutical industry. It also wants to advocate for collective bargaining advantages for its members and a modernization of the collective wage agreement. The Federal Tariff Commission of the IG BCE in Erfurt made a corresponding decision unanimously.
The negotiations in the nine collective bargaining districts nationwide are scheduled to begin next week – starting on April 15th in Frankenthal (Rhineland-Palatinate). The first round of negotiations at the federal level is planned for May 14th and 15th in Teistungen in Thuringia.
According to the union, the current collective agreement and with it the peace obligation expires on June 30th. “If we don’t come close to a deal by the end of June, then we can make our demands clear in other ways,” said IG-BCE collective bargaining board and chemical negotiator Oliver Heinrich to the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. “Labor disputes are part of our toolbox.” The warning is unusually open for the chemical industry: There have not been strikes here for more than 50 years.
Employers want collective agreement “for the crisis”
The chemical and pharmaceutical industry is Germany’s third largest industrial sector after automobile and mechanical engineering. It is in crisis because of increased energy prices and the weak economy. Last year, according to the industry association VCI, sales fell by a good twelve percent compared to the previous year to 229.3 billion euros.
“Many companies have already written off the year 2024 due to a lack of orders,” the managing director of the Federal Chemical Employers Association (BAVC), Klaus-Peter Stiller, recently explained. “An industry in crisis needs a collective agreement for the crisis.” Protecting the site has top priority.
According to an industry survey by the BAVC, 63 percent of companies do not expect the economic situation to ease before 2025. One in twelve companies assume that significant parts of their business in Germany will no longer recover.
More free time or money for union members?
The collective bargaining commission explained that collective bargaining advantages for IG-BCE members could ensure a higher degree of organization among employees and better collective bargaining coverage. This could mean more free time, more money or better social or health protection for union members. “We have been talking about noticeable differentiation regulations for our people for years, and chemical employers have been stalling us for years,” said Heinrich. The remuneration requirement takes into account the differentiated situation of the companies – on average, personnel costs only make up a seventh of sales.
Heinrich warned employers against systematically badmouthing the industry’s situation and thereby provoking an intensification of the conflict. “We are not experiencing an industry-wide crisis in chemicals and pharmaceuticals – we are experiencing a social crisis caused by real wage losses and a lack of domestic demand,” said the union’s negotiator. The industry’s loss of attractiveness as an employer must be stopped. “This can only be achieved with more money and appreciation – and not with doom and gloom.”
The required modernization of the federal wage agreement from 1987 is, among other things, about more fairness, better opportunities for advancement and less bureaucracy.
Source: Stern
