German metal and electrical industry: 42% of firms expect job cuts
A survey by employers' association Gesamtmetall shows gloomy sentiment ahead of wage talks. The IG Metall union wants a 5% pay rise and a halt to job cuts.
Symbolic image · Photo: Frank Vincentz / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped and resized)
Many companies in Germany's metal and electrical industry expect further job losses. According to a survey by employers' association Gesamtmetall published on Friday, 42% of the firms polled expect to cut staff in the next six months. Thirty-nine percent rate their business situation as bad and 40% as satisfactory. Twenty-one percent expect conditions to worsen over the next half year. The survey, conducted from Oct. 7 to 16, covered 1,461 companies with about 800,000 employees, news agency dpa-AFX reported.
Gesamtmetall Chief Executive Oliver Zander acknowledged that some areas such as the defense industry and health technology are doing well. But the defense sector employs only 200,000 people, compared with 3.7 million in the industry as a whole. "Domestic orders do not mean domestic production," Zander said. He said employers are seeing production shift abroad, where lower labor costs allow higher margins.
The survey comes in the middle of the current wage round. IG Metall is demanding a 5% pay increase for the roughly 3.7 million employees, along with job-security measures and profit sharing. The first regional talks in early October ended without agreement, and negotiations continue next week. The no-strike obligation expires at the end of Oct. 31, after which warning strikes are possible. IG Metall board member for collective bargaining Nadine Boguslawski called on employers to offer forward-looking solutions instead of “planning for demise”. "We demand a clear commitment to Germany as a location and a halt to job cuts," she said.