German union IG Metall is seeking a wage increase of 5% as part of its bargaining round for 2027 with the employers of most German steel mills, for a workforce of some 60,000.
The union justifies its demand by pointing to the continued heavy burden on workers due to rising living costs, while also noting the first signs of an economic recovery.
“Following the massive [consumer] price increases, workers need a significant raise in their monthly wages,” says Jan Otto, head of IG Metall’s chapter Berlin-Brandenburg-Saxony.
He adds that the steel industry must “become more attractive to young people again”. It should “no longer lag behind the metal and electrical industries in terms of apprenticeship wages, Kallanish learns.
The proposal for the steelmaking industry is preceded by the wage claim for the much larger metal and electrical sector. That segment encompasses metals and steel using industries as well as electrical industries with large players like automotive, white goods, mechanical engineering, and also some steel processors, with 3.7 million employees.
For these workers, the union is also demanding at least a 5% increase. However, employers are said to be declining any wage hike in 2027 and are instead offering a one-off bonus payment in 2027 plus a wage increase of 1.3% for 2028.
On Tuesday, IG Metall called for the first nationwide token strikes on this matter.
On the steel side, the organisation of employers, AGV Stahl, has flatly dismissed the union’s claim as “out of time”. The employers point at the fact that North Rhine Westphalia alone is about to lose more than 14,000 of 41,000 jobs due to cutbacks.
It cites IG Metall’s chairwoman, Christiane Brenner, as saying that “the German steel industry is in the midst of the most profound structural crisis of its recent history,” which was reportedly said in a newspaper interview in October.
In view of these circumstances, the call for a more than 5% rise “sounds as though it has come from another union, or relates to a different industry,” AGV Stahl says.
