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IG Metall warning strikes to hit German industry

BERLIN: Germany's powerful IG Metall industrial union looks set to down tools next week to support its demand for a wage rise of 5.5 percent and a reduction of the retirement age to 60 from 65.

IG Metall says if there is no sign of a breakthrough during wage talks for 2000, it will stage "warning strikes", which usually take the form of temporary stoppages.

The industrial action could begin as early as next Wednesday and continue until the first week of April.

Warning strikes can take place in individual regions without requiring a nationwide ballot while a more damaging all-out strike requires a nationwide ballot of IG Metall's members.

Zwickel said he would call such a ballot about staging an all-out strike during the Easter holidays if there is no settlement before then.

The prospect of strike action by IG Metall is being watched nervously by both the industry itself, and the European Central Bank, which fears that a big pay deal could set off a new wage-price spiral in the euro zone.

The threat of industrial action has also rattled an already weak euro currency against the dollar.

Employers have so far offered pay rises of 1.5 percent over three years and a limited version of early retirement, which Zwickel said was "laughable".

IG Metall has 2.7 million members but any pay deal applies to 3.2 million workers in the sector.

Local branches of IG Metall and their employers have been meeting this month in key areas, including the coastal regions, Baden-Wuerttemberg, North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony, for wage talks.

Talks ended on Friday without agreement and will resume on Monday. If a deal is reached in one of these states, it usually becomes a pilot for a national agreement.

Germany's annual pay talks can drag on for weeks. Unions and employers entered a four-week "peace period" earlier this month when existing wage agreements expired. IG Metall is not allowed to strike during the peace period.-Reuters