German metalworkers' union launches strike wave over pay and jobs
Germany's metalworkers' union IG Metall launched a wave of strikes on Monday, November 2, 2026, escalating a pay dispute that affects about 3.7 million employees in the country's metal and electrical engineering industries. Al Jazeera reported that Audi, Mercedes-Benz and Tata Steel were among the companies affected.
The union is demanding a 5 percent pay rise, citing cost-of-living pressures, meaning the rising prices of everyday goods. It also wants measures to protect jobs and production sites, along with profit-sharing arrangements, under which workers receive a share of company profits, in strongly performing sectors.
The employers have proposed a one-off payment equal to 1 percent of pay in July 2027, followed by a 1.3 percent wage increase from July 2028. IG Metall rejected that offer, saying it would amount to a pay cut in real terms, meaning once inflation is taken into account. The union called for expanded industrial action.
The walkouts were preceded by warning strikes, which are short stoppages meant to press demands while talks continue. IG Metall said they began at midnight on Sunday, November 1, when the contractual peace obligation, the period in which strikes are barred while an agreement is in force, expired. The union said the warning-strike wave covers more than 2,000 operations. On November 1, IG Metall held a night action with a fire barrel as a warning strike at Siemens Energy in Berlin. Reuters reported the same day that engineering workers had begun wage strikes.
The same day, thousands of people rallied in Berlin and more than 30 other German cities over the cost of living.
The previous bargaining round, in 2024, also involved large walkouts. More than 100,000 workers took part in IG Metall strikes on peak days, according to Al Jazeera.
