Image: ROBERT JAEGER (APA/ROBERT JAEGER)
Previously, Voestler in Linz caused traffic jams in the state capital on Wednesday morning. The deal to be achieved is not “just” about the wallets of the metalheads, but also about the entire national economy. This is also very dependent on private consumption and wages are crucial for this. Both sides are currently demonstrating toughness. The Metaller-KV is considered to be groundbreaking for many industries whose collective agreements are subsequently negotiated.
- Metalworkers’ strike: Massive traffic jams in Linz’s early morning traffic
Negotiator: Strike expansion is possible
Voest shift workers in Krems recalled in the ORF program “Report” on Tuesday evening that “if we didn’t exist, employers wouldn’t be able to go home the way they go home either.” One of the employees’ chief negotiators, Karl Dürtscher from the GPA union, reiterated in the broadcast that an expansion of the strike was possible if the employers did not move.
Knill: Strikes “irresponsible” and “pointless”
The Secretary General of the Industrial Association, Christoph Neumayer, also expected in the report that the situation could possibly get worse for the time being. But he is aggressively building on the domestic social partnership’s ability to compromise: “At the end of the day, we know that in good Austrian tradition there should be a result.” Employers’ chief negotiator Christian Knill recently condemned strikes during the recession as “irresponsible” and “pointless”.
- more on the subject: Chief negotiator Binder on Metaller-KV: “No deal below the inflation rate”
- also read: Christian Knill: More of a fine blade
The employee representatives are demanding an 11.6 percent increase in wages and salaries among metalworkers. The employers are offering around 5 percent “sustainable wage increases” in two variants. Additional one-off payments for employees would result in a wage increase of between 8 percent and 10 percent. The employee representatives call this “voodoo mathematics” and do not want to accept a proposed two-year agreement or one-off payments as an integral part of the KV negotiation result. PRO-GE chief negotiator Binder never tires of emphasizing that one-off payments could just be “the chive on the sandwich.”
From an economic point of view, the required or offered wage increases are by no means just about what is left in the employees’ wallets or how the wage costs of individual companies develop. It is also about how the wage increases overall affect the economy and economic expectations.
Wage increases and consumption
The Momentum Institute, which is close to employee representatives, reminded on Wednesday that wage increases flow back into consumption. Consumer expectations, in turn, are an important part of the expected economic growth in the coming year. If the wage and salary increase is “significantly lower (than would be expected based on rolling inflation, note), the upswing in 2024 can hardly be supported by private consumption and would therefore be weaker,” says Wifo expert Benjamin Bittschi in the “Report”.
Wifo recently predicted an increase in private consumption of 1.8 percentage points next year (and 0.8 points this year). At the IHS it is 1.5 points for 2024 and 0.2 for this year. This means they have forecast growth of 1.2 and 0.9 percent respectively in the coming year.
Momentum calculates that for every percentage point by which wages rise, short-term and long-term consumption increases by 800 and 780 million euros, respectively. Social security contributions amount to 260 million euros and wage tax amounts to 320 million euros. “Within just one year, employees spend half of a wage increase,” writes Momentum. “In the long term, every euro in wage increases is consumed one-to-one – for example because employees put away savings for later purchases for a few years.”
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Source: Nachrichten
