Resolution of the IG Metall shop stewards Mercedes Benz Untertürkheim: "Stop now. Protest, resistance, strike! The bosses want class struggle? They can have it!"

dossier

“Almost not a day goes by without a company announcing that it is laying off workers or having to "make savings" at our expense. The crisis is omnipresent. And the bosses want to make us pay for it. (...) Better politics needs our trade union and political fight! That's why we don't wait until someone asks us to protest. We're starting with it! Feeling sorry for ourselves, hoping for a supposed "alternative for Germany" or pleading and begging the government doesn't help. (…) We are committed to our union and demand that demonstrations against the greed of the bosses, against the government and for a better future be organized as soon as possible. Up to and including the strike. And if the union leaders are reluctant, then we will do it ourselves.”Resolution of the Mercedes Benz Untertürkheim shop stewards from June 2026 , which inspired other parts in IG Metall:

• Petition: RESPOND NOW! Stop the general attack by the bosses and their government. For militant unions. For the defense of our achievements. 
  “In recent months, business bosses and government representatives have used the media to instigate the sharpest class struggle from above in post-war German history. (…) Powerful people think the time is ripe to scrap collective agreements and social security systems. (…) Many of us have probably believed in “social partnership” for too long. (…) They want to overcome their crisis and secure or even expand their profits at our expense. We, on the other hand, want a dignified life with good working conditions, social security, health and peace.Conflicting interests require resistance
  (…) The attacks will not stop if we keep quiet. (…) If we retreat today, not only will the next attacks follow tomorrow. Right-wing tendencies are no coincidence (…) The unions must not again become complicit through inaction. That's why we say: Our achievements are non-negotiable! (…)
  It's good that ver.di is organizing protests in defense of the welfare state. It is good that IG Metall is calling for a day of action in the auto and supplier industries on September 21st. It's good that the DGB is organizing demonstrations nationwide on September 26th. But all of this won't be enough. These can only be the first steps towards consistent resistance. We need unions as a real countervailing force…”Petition at change.org from trade unionists, works councils, shop stewards and active colleagues with 130 named first signatories (including Mag Wompel/LabourNet)
  • To support dissemination there is also aPoster for the petition 
  • See the dossier for the actions mentioned:Trade unions, social cuts and resistance: almost 25 years of theory and practice
• Resistance and no step back - open fire letter from Mercedes shop stewards and works council members to the board of IG Metall
  “…In mid-June, the IG Metall area trust body management at Mercedes Untertürkheim passed a resolution in which they described the federal government's current policy in clear terms. It says that with the announced job cuts, the planned abolition of the 8-hour day and all the further attacks on our working and living conditions, the bosses and their state have declared war on us, the wage-earning employees. Our colleagues are speaking from the hearts of many of us. (…) Our astonishment and outrage were all the greater when, a few days later, we had to read the guest commentary by Christiane Benner together with the billionaire BDI President Peter Leibinger and the chairman of the IGBCE, Michael Vassiliadis. (…) Swinging the pen together with capital and at the same time preaching the willingness to fight to us members has nothing to do with authenticity. We ask ourselves: which of the two sides is fooling us? (…) We are saying it very clearly: Our chairwoman is not speaking on our behalf or on behalf of the many thousands of active company colleagues who stand behind us. What also surprises us: Why does this comment appear just a few days after the Untertürkheim Resolution? Is the guest comment intended as a conscious public contradiction to the positioning from our companies? (…)
  We therefore want to make it clear once again: The business associations, the federal government and we employees are obviously pursuing very different interests at the moment. They want to overcome their crisis and secure or expand their profits at our expense. We, on the other hand, want to maintain good working standards, social security, affordable housing, good education, health and peace. (…)
  In our company we experience every day that we live in a class society. We are experiencing that the interests of us wage-earning employees and the interests of company management and the government are increasingly diametrically opposed. At the same time, we also see an opportunity to emerge stronger from these conflicts. As a union that doesn't put up with everything. As a union that fights again. And as a union that draws its strength from the companies and colleagues. We must not let the achievements that countless colleagues before us have fought hard for be taken out of our hands…” The very extensive oneOpen letter documented on August 11, 2026 in the “Forum trade union Left Berlin”. should be read in its entirety
  • see this one tooas a PDF file and its background in the opening credits by Peter Vlatten: “…There are questions that need to be answered. One is, how serious is its own leadership about organizing the necessary resistance to repel the current wave of attacks from capital and government? How honestly do we as trade unionists treat each other?
    The trust and works councils of Mercedes-Benz sent an “open letter” to the board of IG Metall on August 3, 2026. The impetus was onejoint statement the board of directors of IG Metall and IG BCE with the business association BDI, about which the Handelsblatt reported. According to our information, the IG Metall board had promised a short-term response. Since this answer has not been received after 10 days, the time has come to publish the fire letter widely. It is the right of all trade unionists to be informed promptly about fundamental controversies in their own organizations…”
• The representatives from Mercedes-Benz Untertürkheim have submitted - IG Metall local youth committees and combative IG Metallers at VW are each following up
  • Fighting IG Metallers at VW: Stop now. Protest, resistance, strike! The bosses want class warfare? You can have it!
    “Almost not a day goes by without a company announcing that they are laying off people or that they have to “make savings” at our expense. The crisis is omnipresent. And the bosses want to make us pay for it. (…) The money that is missing from the social security funds due to the austerity measures also flows into rearmament. Our youth should go to war again for the profits of the corporations. Better politics needs our trade union and political fight! That's why we don't wait until someone asks us to protest. Let's start with it! Just like the shop stewards at Mercedes Untertürkheim! Feeling sorry for yourself, hoping for a supposed “alternative for Germany” or pleading and begging the government doesn’t help. (…)
    We are colleagues from various Volkswagen plants. We are shop stewards, works council members and trust body management. But above all, we are combative IG Metallers. We oppose the planned job cuts and reject any further cuts…”Leaflet dated August 3, 2026 
  • The representatives from Mercedes-Benz Untertürkheim have submitted. As the IG Metall local youth committees (southwest), we are following suit
    “The representatives from Mercedes-Benz Untertürkheim have submitted. We are following suit as the IG Metall local youth committees in Stuttgart, Esslingen, Freiburg-Lörrach, Ludwigsburg-Waiblingen, Reutlingen-Tübingen and as JAV Mercedes-Benz Untertürkheim. Almost every day we hear: Jobs are being cut, trainees and students are not being taken on, entire plants are closing. Savings should be made everywhere – especially at our expense. And it's not just at work that we are attacked.
    Politicians are also increasingly giving in to the demands of the capitalists (…)
    While we are making cuts and losing our jobs, there is suddenly enough money: for rearmament and war. In addition, compulsory military service will be reintroduced because, if in doubt, we should even defend this misery with our own lives. But instead of “dying for the fatherland”, we want:
    – Secure jobs and permanent employment after training and studies.
    – Good pay in training and studies.
    – Obtaining training places.
    – Investments in social and health instead of the military.
    – Peace for all.
    But one thing is clear: we don't get this for free. Because: the capitalists – and us? We don't play on the same team.
    They make a profit. We do the work. They're getting richer. We should give up.
    Complaining doesn't help. Neither does begging. And certainly not hoping that someone will sort it out. If something is to change, it will only happen if we take it into our own hands and fight.
    That's why we say: protest, resistance, strike!
    In the following we agree with the words of the representatives from Untertürkheim…”Declaration documented on July 31, 2026 in the “Forum trade union Left Berlin” (“The crisis belongs to you, the future belongs to us – parts of the IG Metall Jugend Südwest are going on the offensive!”) of the IG Metall local youth committees Stuttgart, Esslingen, Freiburg-Lörrach, Ludwigsburg-Waiblingen, Reutlingen-Tübingen and as JAV Mercedes-Benz Untertürkheim
  • also as “Resolution from IG Metall local youth committees and JAV Mercedes-Benz Ut“at the VKG – networking for militant unions
• There is a resolution of the Mercedes Benz Untertürkheim shop stewardsMobi video on YouTube dated June 23, 2026 with transcript

See also:

• on the socio-political background the dossier:Trade unions, social cuts and resistance: almost 25 years of theory and practiceand current in it: [Sample application to the DGB unions] Protest cascade including strikes against the government's horror agenda is necessary - beyond regional actions
• on the current operational impacts:
  • Mercedes Benz: Dossier:“Savings program” and increased efficiency thanks to electric cars also at Daimler – temporary workers first…- but also current: Open letter to the Federal Chancellor of the trust body management of IG Metall at Mercedes-Benz “not as a supplicant to you, but as a partner”: Stop the class war from above!
  • VW:
    • Dossier:Clear-cutting at VW from 2024? Car manufacturer plans billions in cuts to increase “efficiency”.
    • andCollection of signatures from IG Metall colleagues, shop stewards and works council members from various VW plants: No to the conversion to a war economy!
• Dossier:Resistance to the consequences of the profit crisis for the car workforce is growing

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