IG Metall demands wage increases, launches “warning strikes”

IG Metall is demanding a 4.5 percent salary increase in the wood and plastic processing industry, as it presses with its collective bargaining negotiations, which started last September. The union is also asking for an increase in the demographic fund, from EUR 300 to 750 Euro per worker, each year. It said that this would mobilise more money to cover up the workers’ “partial retirement, a part-time employment scheme for German workers approaching the retirement age.