IG Metall wants to secure employment, future and income in collective bargaining in the metal and electrical industry – with a volume of 4 percent. The plan: Coming out of the Corona crisis strong – and securing work for the future. But employers don’t want that. You are using the corona crisis to attack: You are calling for a zero round in 2021. There should be more money in 2022 at the earliest. And they don’t want to negotiate any binding regulations with us to secure employment and the future.
Our demands also make economic sense.
Employers want quick money
“Securing employment” is at the top of the list for us in collective bargaining in the metal and electrical industry. Because many companies are cutting jobs – or are planning to cut them. At short notice because of the Corona crisis. But also in the medium term because of the transformation – the structural change through digitization and the switch to electric cars. Many companies are also taking advantage of the situation to implement austerity programs – through downsizing, relocations and closings.
The corona crisis led to a collapse in economic growth. Nevertheless, we were largely able to keep the jobs. Works councils and IG Metall implemented short-time work instead of layoffs. IG Metall campaigned successfully in Berlin for simplifications, improvements and an extension of the statutory short-time work from 12 to 24 months. The economy then picked up again in the third quarter of 2020. The second lockdown has so far been unscathed. And for 2021, economic researchers expect growth of up to 5 percent again.
Companies expect growth – and still cut jobs
Companies also expect growth. And yet the auto and supplier industries in particular want to cut jobs massively.
The reduction has little to do with the current economic corona crisis. It’s about the future, about transformation, structural change, the energy and mobility turnaround. Old technologies such as combustion engines are being phased out, but new technologies such as electric cars will not initially secure the same number of jobs. This takes a while.
We want to continue to bridge the current economic crisis with short-time working. However, short-time work is limited to a maximum of 24 months. That is not enough to bridge the time until the new technologies come up. In addition, the special rules will expire at the end of 2021.
We are therefore calling for further options under the collective agreement to reduce working hours in the longer term – for example in the form of a 4-day week. This would free a day that can be used to train employees for the work of the future, for example.
No strategy and no investment in the future
But the work of the future will not come by itself. To do this, companies must invest specifically in new technologies and products. But a good half of the companies do not have a transformation strategy.
The problem is that companies and their investors are increasingly looking for short-term profit and less and less long-term investment. In addition, companies are increasingly placing the technologies of the future in cheap locations for cost reasons. Not only production, but also administration and development are meanwhile affected by this hidden relocation.
“Shaping the future” is therefore the second demand made by IG Metall in the current metal wage round. We want to ensure that we have a say in investments in locations, technology and qualifications. To this end, we are calling for framework regulations in the area-wide collective agreements, according to which we then negotiate tailor-made future collective agreements with investments in the location and employees in the companies.
We can only get out of the crisis with more purchasing power
The economic research institutes predict up to 5 percent more growth for 2021. However, they take into account that private consumption will increase significantly. Over half of the growth should come from us, from private households.
“Increase income” is the third demand made by IG Metall for metal collective bargaining. IG Metall is demanding 4 percent more money – but not as a flat-rate wage increase for everyone, but as a volume that can be used differently depending on the economic situation of the company: In companies that have a lot of work, the 4 percent should be added as a normal wage increase come.
However, companies that have too little work for all of their employees should reduce their working hours (see above). So that employees do not lose too much money and thus purchasing power over the years, the entire lost working hours should not be deducted from their wages, but part of the wage losses should be compensated and the 4 percent volume flow into a partial wage compensation.
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