Metal and electrical collective bargaining round 2026 for 5% more money, job security and profit sharing for boom companies

dossier

“The collective bargaining movement in the metal and electrical industries has started. The collective bargaining committees of IG Metall have come together to discuss the situation and initial demands. The situation is extremely differentiated: many companies are in crisis, while others are making good profits. From October, IG Metall will again be negotiating higher wages for 3.8 million employees in the metal and electrical industries. At the start of the collective bargaining movement, the collective bargaining committees of IG Metall decided on Wednesday to terminate the current collective wage agreements in the metal and electrical industries - the prerequisite for collective bargaining - and started the discussion about the economic situation and possible demands for collective bargaining…”Report from IG Metall dated June 25, 2026 , theAction page and first posts about it:

• Collective bargaining in the metal and electrical industries starts on October 7th with demonstrations in Baden-Württemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia 
  “The first round of collective bargaining for the metal and electrical industries in Baden-Württemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia starts today. It continues on Thursday in Bavaria, Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. Tens of thousands of employees accompanied the negotiations with demonstrations.
  The first round of collective bargaining for the metal and electrical industry in 2026 starts today. The IG Metall districts are conducting the negotiations decentrally with the regional employers' associations for 15 collective bargaining areas. It starts on Wednesday in Baden-Württemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia. The tariff areas of the coast (Hamburg, Bremen, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony Coast), Bavaria, Lower Saxony, Osnabrück-Emsland-Grafschaft-Bentheim and Saxony-Anhalt will follow on Thursday. On Friday, IG Metall will negotiate for the “middle group” (Saarland, Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse). Next week, the tariff areas Thuringia and Berlin-Brandenburg will follow on Monday, as well as Saxony on Wednesday…”Report from IG Metall dated October 6, 2026, updated on October 7, 2026 (“Start collective bargaining in the metal and electrical industry”)
• Trade unionists allegedly want to “revolutionize” wage negotiations. On the 2026 collective bargaining round in the metal and electrical industry and an impossible (?) balancing act by IG Metall 
  “The following statements should be preceded by this “disclaimer”: If someone writes that something is to be “revolutionized” in Germany, then, against the background of previous experiences, it is either dream-dancing horse-trading or an excessive attempt to describe a somewhat stronger change in the existing situation in the sense of its (selective) further development. One should keep this note in mind when, in these difficult times for many industrial sectors, and particularly difficult times for the metal and electrical industries, including the important automotive industry, an article is given such a promising headline: Trade unionists are revolutionizing wage negotiations : »The auto industry is cutting jobs en masse, while defense companies are booming. How is a joint wage agreement supposed to work for millions of employees? Now there is an unusual idea,” says Alexander Hagelüken. (…)
  If you take a closer look at the previous collective agreements, you can see that almost all unions entered the collective bargaining rounds with high demands1 (in the range between 5 to 7 percent, partly in connection with demands for special consideration of lower wage groups in the form of minimum amounts of increases). However, it must be noted that the degrees actually achieved so far are far lower in terms of remuneration. On the other hand, the – once again – long term of the newly negotiated collective agreements is striking.2 A term of 27 months or more dominates the earnings landscape.
  And what does IG Metall (not) do?
  Certainly not everything was better in the past, but in the past, especially as a wage earner working in the non-industrial sector, you could regularly make the impossible wish that you would rather be represented by the strong IG Metall in order to be able to benefit from their sometimes very generous wage agreements. But times are changing and employees in the pioneering companies in the metal and electrical industries, especially in the automotive industry and mechanical engineering, have been coming under heavy pressure for a long time. Production relocations to other countries, especially to Eastern Europe, job cuts for some time in connection with the threat of factory closures or the “silent” wave of bankruptcies, especially in the supplier sector - and now increasing pressure on working conditions in the core areas with the remaining employees. At the same time, the challenging situation for the trade union in charge, i.e. IG Metall, is made more complicated by the fact that there is not only reductions, but parallel to the decline of the previous industrial heavyweights, especially the automotive industry, new poles of growth are emerging, as it were as a result of the publicly supported and financed expansion of the armaments industry, where companies can sometimes make considerable profits.
  This is an extremely unpleasant situation for the union, one might have to put it better: a highly toxic starting situation for the core competence of a union, i.e. conducting collective bargaining and reaching acceptable agreements in the interests of the members. (…)
  Hagelüken reports on a “suggestion that could facilitate a collective agreement by addressing the differences in the metal and electrical industries: a wage premium that only very well-performing companies pay in addition to the general wage agreement.”  How exactly is the salary premium supposed to work? Hagelüken quotes two influential IG Metall officials in his article: Daniel Friedrich, IG Metall district head for the coast, and the IG Metall boss of North Rhine-Westphalia, Knut Giesler. They supposedly want to expand an instrument that was previously only intended for crises. »If a company is doing poorly and the return on sales falls below 2.3 percent, it no longer has to pay the so-called T-money of 18.4 percent of a monthly income. This instrument could also be used for booming companies – just the other way round.«(…)
  Now some people might object at this point, which Hagelüken also does: What would employers gain from such a salary increase? At first glance, the proposal only seems to result in additional costs for well-running businesses. Hagelüken constructs this perspective: “The whole thing could still be interesting for employers if you look at the logic of a collective bargaining round. IG Metall will make a wage demand in September and then negotiate with employers. If IG Metall can be sure that booming companies will pay a premium, it will become more flexible. Then it should be easier for her in the negotiations to agree to a moderate general salary agreement for the entire metal and electrical industry that does justice to the crisis facing car manufacturers. Then the union does not have to fear that its members in well-earning defense or space companies will reject the general agreement. (…) Hagelüken summarizes it as follows: “Giesler is therefore open to a further concession from IG Metall when it comes to payment – ​​in addition to the existing automatic system of no longer paying T-Money if the return on sales is below 2.3 percent.”
  The representatives of this less “revolution” and more “accelerated evolution” of the collective bargaining system will not only encounter strong resistance within the unions. Parts of the employers certainly don't make it easy for them to find a solution when they bombard employees with numerous (further) cuts proposals, such as the extension of working hours without wage compensation that was specifically requested at Mercedes. And you shouldn't forget: labor costs for car manufacturers are only ten to 15 percent of the total costs…”Post from September 29, 2026 by and at Stefan Sell 
• [“Abandonment doesn't make any progress”!] IG Metall decides on a “tailor-made” package of demands: 5 percent more money, job security and profit sharing for booming companies
  “Metal and electrical industry: Union demands answers to all company situations +++ Benner: “We are going into the negotiations with combative realism.” +++ Boguslawski: “Our package is responsible, fair and tailor-made”
  Diverse demands for a differentiated situation: IG Metall wants to strengthen purchasing power and protect jobs in the upcoming collective bargaining negotiations for employees in the metal and electrical industries. Employees in booming companies should receive a bonus in their collective agreement. The IG Metall board decided this on Wednesday:
  – 5 percent more money. Employees in lower pay groups should be better off.
  – A collective agreement to secure the future and employment in the metal and electrical industries.
  – Collective profit sharing for booming companies.
  “We are approaching the negotiations with combative realism,” says Christiane Benner, First Chairwoman of IG Metall. "Abandonment doesn't make any progress. Instead of crisis rhetoric, attacks on social standards and doom and gloom, employees expect secure jobs, compensation for increased prices and a fair share of the company's profits. We do not accept threats of relocation as a diversionary tactic from management failures."
  According to union surveys, the order backlog in two thirds of companies is good or very good. The majority also expects good or very good development in the near future. At the same time, IG Metall is observing different, individual situations in the sub-sectors. Orders are booming, particularly from manufacturers of ships, rail vehicles, medical technology, aerospace and armaments. For a third of companies, particularly in the automotive industry or mechanical engineering, the order situation is poor to very poor.
  Collective bargaining answers to all company situations
  IG Metall collective bargaining officer Nadine Boguslawski emphasizes: "Our package of demands is responsible, fair and tailored. We offer and demand answers from employers in terms of collective bargaining for a wide range of economic situations: from crisis to boom operations."
  “If you want an upswing, you need purchasing power,” said Nadine Boguslawski. (…)
  The collective bargaining negotiations for the metal and electrical industries, which are led regionally by the IG Metall districts, start on October 7th. The peace obligation ends on October 31st, warning strikes are possible from November 1st. Over 3.7 million people work in the industry.”Press release from September 23, 2026 (“IG Metall decides on a package of demands: 5 percent more money, secure jobs and profit sharing”)
  • For the day of action on September 21st. IG Metall has also called for investments, tariffs and industrial electricity prices - see more about this in the dossier:Clear-cutting at VW from 2024? Car manufacturer plans billions in cuts to increase “efficiency”.
• First a waiver, then a demand: IG Metall surveyed employees in companies in the metal and electrical industries - “Money and Security” follow the goals that have long been published
  • Metal and Electrical Collective Bargaining Round 2026 Survey: Employees expect money and security
    “IG Metall surveyed 267,000 employees in 2,285 companies in the metal and electrical industries. The situation is very inconsistent. Almost 50 percent of those surveyed rate the situation in their company as good. They expect security for their jobs – but also more money. (…)
    Employees in the metal and electrical industries expect answers from employers about increased prices and the future of the companies during collective bargaining in the fall. The respondents perceive the economic situation of the companies as very different: half describe the situation in the company as very good (14.5%) or good (31.7%) or. A third (32.2%) say their employer “works like that”. One in five perceives the situation as bad (16.9%) or very bad (4.7%). The positive economic perception is driven by aerospace, armaments, shipbuilding and energy companies. On the other hand, employees in the automotive industry and service providers are more critical of the course of their companies. (…) With a view to the company's wallet and profits, the majority of employees expect a moderate (47.8%) to significant pay increase (35.0%) in addition to job security. Given the overall economically solid situation, doing without is not an issue: only one in six considers only a small (13.1%) or no pay increase (4.1%) to be appropriate. (…)
    With the results of the survey, IG Metall is now starting the debate on demands in the regional collective bargaining districts. On September 22nd, the collective bargaining committees of the collective bargaining areas will decide on their demands. The union's board wants to decide on a concrete, nationwide collective bargaining demand on September 23rd…”Report from September 10, 2026 
  • IG Metall before the metal collective bargaining round: Christiane Benner's program against industrial dismantling - a German copy of Trump's protectionism.
    “…In the Handelsblatt interview from July 28, 2026, IG Metall boss Christiane Benner outlined her recipes for preserving jobs. Customs duties, local content, a commitment to growth sectors such as armaments and data centers – and a declaration of war on the pension issue. A closer look at the facts behind this program shows that it is far less combative than it sounds and, in crucial places, is simply a German copy of a failed US blueprint. (…) Anyone who supports an extension of working hours as a supervisory board member and at the same time as a union leader would have to advocate for a reduction in working hours will inevitably end up in a role conflict - forty years after the greatest success that their own organization has ever achieved with precisely this demand. (…) Locational nationalism promises short-term protection for its own workforce, but it is bought through competition between employees from different locations and countries - a game that the working class, no matter who gives in, can only lose in the long run…”Article by Jörg Wuttke from September 14, 2026– we thank you!
  • First renunciation, then demand
    “IG Metall chairwoman offers concessions before the union decides on its collective bargaining demand. Employee survey shows “moderate” wage demands.
    Before the metal and electrical collective bargaining round, IG Metall surveyed 267,000 employees in the industry about their ideas about it. The union published some results at the weekend: 47.8 percent of employees want a “moderate” pay increase and 35 percent want a “strong” pay increase. More than four fifths do not want to do without. At the same time, majorities are concerned about the cost of living, pensions, health, jobs and the future of the company. Only: The colleagues were not allowed to quantify what “moderate” or “strong” meant. Neither percent nor euros were included as options in the survey. IG Metall has not yet published the answer to the last “activating” question – whether the employees are prepared to enforce their demands together. What is even more remarkable is what the leadership explains even before the intra-union debate on demands has been concluded.
    The collective bargaining committees only decide on their demands on September 22nd, and the union executive committee on the 23rd. But at the end of August, IG Metall chairwoman Christiane Benner had already brought into play an agreement that would be differentiated according to the business situation and region, including opening clauses, in an interview with Wirtschaftswoche (...) That sounds like something in return, but it is an offer of concession - before it is even clear what is being demanded. At the same time, Benner said that jobs are “not threatened by excessive labor costs.” If wages are not the cause of the crisis, why should they be part of its therapy?
    It is the logic of the Pforzheim Agreement of 2004 that is being carried forward here. (…)
    Anyone who manages social uncertainty instead of making collective countervailing power tangible should not be surprised at the increasing political shift to the right among workers. The day of action for the automotive industry initiated by IG Metall on September 21st will therefore be a test. Is he building up pressure - or is he just trapping it one day before the collective bargaining committee's decisions? The decisive factor is whether the collective bargaining round increases the company's ability to deal with conflict and strike: "Waiver doesn't help," says Christiane Benner. That's right. Then the IG Metall leadership should stop offering it as a precaution.”Article by Andreas Buderus in the young world from September 14, 2026 – see also here below “Greetings from Pforzheim…”
• Social partnership in crisis: On the collective bargaining round in the metal and electrical industries
  “Starting in October, IG Metall will be negotiating wages for 3.8 million employees in the metal and electrical industries. The employers have already made their demands to the government, the unions and the public: "Anything that hinders growth cannot be done at the moment," says the Federal Association of Industry. What is demanded, as is the case from the employers' association Gesamtmetall, is: extension of working hours, reductions in wages and approval of staff cuts.
  IG Metall is still discussing its demands and has a differentiated view of the economic situation and the situation of companies, and speaks of many companies in economic difficulties and companies that are doing really well. “The trick will be to set collective bargaining demands that suit everyone,” says Nadine Boguslawski from the IGM board. The union is therefore also discussing surcharges for well-running companies on top of the foreseeable small collective wage increase. (…)
  Companies in the automotive and supplier industries may be in trouble because of the underutilization of the VW, Mercedes and Ford, Bosch, Conti and ZF factories. But the underutilization can be attributed to the refused mobility transition, the wrong model policy and technological lagging behind international competition. The “imbalance” is mainly that the owners are not satisfied with the profit rate of four percent. (…)
  Knut Giesler, the IGM district manager from North Rhine-Westphalia, reproduces the image from the commentary in the Handelsblatt when he says: “In this collective bargaining roundEmployers and unions have to jump over their shadows." At the same time, he warns employers not to exaggerate their demands: "With such demands they radicalize our members. We’re already observing that.”…”Article on September 11, 2026 by and by Stephan Krull first published in express 9/2026
• Pforzheim sends its regards: IG Metall is ready for a flexible collective bargaining agreement even before the start of the metal and electrical collective bargaining round in 2026 - (Flassbeck: “a terrific wrong move”)
  • Christiane Benner: IG Metall is ready for a flexible collective agreement
    “The union leader Christiane Benner wants to differentiate the wage round more according to the business situation and region. However, she rejects pure inflation compensation.
    IG Metall wants to achieve noticeable wage increases for employees in the upcoming collective bargaining round in the metal and electrical industries. “Compensating for inflation would not be enough,” said IG Metall chairwoman Christiane Bennerin an interview with WirtschaftsWoche [paywall].At the same time, given the difficult situation of many industrial companies, Benner was open to a collective agreement with opening clauses. "We know that the economic situation is tense for many companies. I have never experienced a situation like this during my time at IG Metall," said Benner. "Flexible instruments that take the economic situation into account are not a revolution. They are part of a differentiated tariff policy - and they have already existed in the past," said Benner in an interview with WirtschaftsWoche. She pointed out that things were going very well in some industries, such as aviation, parts of the energy sector, medical technology and the defense industry. There are also big differences geographically…”Article by Bert Losse and Annina Reimann from August 31, 2026 in WirtschaftsWoche online 
  • IG-Metall wants more operational wage flexibility - that's a huge mistake
    "It is not from the employers, no, from IG Metall itself that a push to make collective bargaining agreements more flexible is coming. This is tragic. However, it shows the disorientation of union officials that has been rampant since the beginning of the 2000s. For decades, the area-wide collective agreement was the most important instrument of union wage policy. But the knowledge of the outstanding importance of the area-wide collective agreement for the employees and for the entire economy has been lost. Whoever increased productivity and rising If you want real wages for all employees, you must insist on the strict application of the collective agreement. Anyone who deviates from this is leading the economy down the wrong path of saving jobs at all costs (…) The mobility of the workforce that is assumed by the classic theory does not exist (…) on the one hand, the employees have become sedentary and cannot and do not want to move every few months to look for a new job To retain skilled workers because the search costs on their part may be very high. Consequently, in the 1950s and 1960s of the last century, the unions began to agree on collective agreements that regulate salary structures and wage increases across entire sectors or - through the cooperation of various unions - even across the entire economy. These collective agreements are nothing other than a functional equivalent to the mobility of the workforce in a world in which the workforce is no longer so mobile.(…) Despite the immobility of the workforce, whatever the cause, the law of “equal pay for equal work” can be enforced. This is best guaranteed by an area collective agreement with as few exceptions as possible. Only in such a system can economic development be controlled through profits rather than through substitute mechanisms such as company agreements. Just as with state subsidies for distressed industries, a deviation from the principle of the same price for all factors of production, including labor, must be the exception. A number of cases have shown in the past that anyone who makes the exception the rule not only destroys the structures of social dialogue that have developed in our country for many good reasons, but above all the market economy efficiency of a dynamically developing system. (…) Wage agreements in which the individual industries pay wage increases in accordance with the productivity development in their respective industry or sector are problematic for similar reasons as company differentiation. If the sector of the economy with the highest productivity growth has to cope with the highest wage increases and the one with the lowest productivity growth has to cope with the lowest, this also inhibits technical progress and thus brings with it a loss of income compared to a situation in which all sectors are based on the average productivity growth of the entire economy. Because the profits and thus the investment opportunities in the more successful sectors grow more slowly orThe scope for relative price reductions in the more successful sectors compared to the less successful ones decreases in purely sector-oriented wage agreements. (…) The attempt to save the industry from a cost perspective through below-average wage growth is doomed to failure in the medium to long term because the workers will try to change the industry. Depending on your qualifications, such a change is not generally impossible. While a miner may not be able to move into the telecommunications field without time-consuming retraining, a construction electrician will find work in the industry without too much difficulty. The Law of One Price cannot be overridden at will. When it comes to the question of which type of training is preferred among school leavers, the prospects of future employment income play a role. If below-average wage increases are agreed for years in a weak industry, this will not attract new talent among the workforce. Then, in addition to the below-average productivity development, there is also a kind of negative selection on the labor market, which is likely to further darken the long-term prospects of the industry.” Article by Heiner Flassbeck from September 2, 2026 on his blog Relevant Economics
  • “Tariff revolution” at IG Metall
    “The next round of collective bargaining in the metal and electrical industries will start in autumn. As always, the companies have “nothing to distribute”. IG Metall's answer: We understand, but there are also companies that make a lot of profit. So more wages there and, of course, less for the rest. A fatal logic. (…)
    Selling at a premium for a few at a discount for many
    At first glance, the idea of ​​IG Metall does not fit into the current “landscape”, in which, as is well known, there is nothing to distribute due to the economic crisis. In the end, it paves the way for appropriately low collective agreements. And it works like this: Only those companies in the metal and electrical industry that are doing comparatively well, contrary to the generally worse situation, should pay the surcharge. These include the aerospace industry, medical and energy technology, arms manufacturers and parts of mechanical engineering. The majority of companies would not have to pay a surcharge and received their required low collective bargaining agreement. In any case, a significant number of them pay even less. Because the so-called “T-money” is automatically eliminated for those companies whose return on sales falls below 2.3 percent.
    In this way, the union could sell its members a low collective bargaining agreement that is appropriate for the crisis. This means, writes the Süddeutsche Zeitung, that it “does not have to fear that its members in high-earning armaments or space companies will reject the general agreement” (SZ, ibid.).
    The charm of the special payment: can be adjusted at any time if necessary
    Welcome to the tariff jungle: In addition to the monthly wages, corner wages, holiday bonuses and Christmas bonuses, in addition to the countless wage groups and different wage levels depending on the federal state, there is also the special payment “tariff additional money” (T-Money), amounting to 18.4 percent of the monthly salary. According to IG Metall, special payments have the advantage: “They can be differentiated and converted into time in order to secure jobs in operational crises without the monthly salary being reduced.” Companies thus have a convenient means of paying their employees less during a valid collective agreement - if they make less profit than the aforementioned 2.3 percent.
    The supposed "tariff revolution" now consists of reversing this instrument in an exceptional way: "We have an automatic downward differentiation of parts of the salary if a company is doing poorly. Then there should also be an automatic upward differentiation if business is going well. It would be conceivable to increase the T-money if a company has generated a certain return on sales," says Knut Giesler, district manager of IG Metall in North Rhine-Westphalia (quoted from SZ, ibid.)…”Article by Björn Hendrig from August 29, 2026 in Overton magazine 
  • IG Metallers demand “flexibility downwards and upwards”
    “Two regional IG Metall bosses suggest linking collective wages more closely to the company's success. This means that defense and energy companies would be asked to pay more and car manufacturers would be spared.
    Berlin. In the run-up to the big collective bargaining round in the fall, two district managers of IG Metall made a proposal as to how the social partners could bridge the enormous gap within the industry: They suggested that high-earning companies pay their employees a surcharge. In return, this could enable a lower general collective bargaining agreement for the approximately four million employees in the entire metal and electrical industry. The parts of the industry that are not doing well would be spared - especially the car manufacturers and their suppliers.  (…)
    Benner therefore complained: “Employers are using the crisis as an excuse to do tabula rasa.” They tried to “drain achievements that we fought hard for and paid for,” she said, referring to the demands of Mercedes supervisory board chairman Martin Brudermüller
    after a return to the 40-hour week. Volkswagen has announced that it will cut at least 50,000 jobs by 2030 - there are also plans for up to four plant closures, which the group has not yet officially confirmed.
    The upcoming collective bargaining round for Germany's largest industrial sector in the fall will be correspondingly complicated. Insiders report that nervousness is already extremely high, especially among employers. “In the end, more differentiation could be necessary,” announced Benner.
    The two IG-Metall district managers for the coast and North Rhine-Westphalia regions, Daniel Friedrich and Knut Giesler, have already brought a very specific differentiation into play. They want to expand an instrument that has so far only been intended for crises: “transformation money” (T-money), which in Baden-Württemberg is called “transformer module”.
    This is another annual special payment introduced in 2021 in addition to the Christmas and holiday bonuses. It amounts to 18.4 percent of a monthly income. However, if a company's return on sales falls below 2.3 percent, it can postpone the payment and, if necessary, suspend it completely. The trade unionists suggest that this instrument could be repurposed so that booming companies pay more if they reach a certain level of return. The “Süddeutsche Zeitung” first reported about it…”Article by Barbara Gillmann from August 21, 2026 in the Handelsblatt online 
  • We remind you of:
    • Collective agreements to protect competitiveness?
      Article by Wolfgang Schaumberg and Mag Wompel, published in express 11-12/1997
    • See our section in the LabourNetArchive (until 2012).Differentiation and flexibilization of collective bargaining policy and therein, among other things,How much differentiation can solidarity tolerate?
• Survey of employees in the metal and electrical industries begins. Capitalists complain about costs and the crisis: Watch out for wage depressers!
  "The collective bargaining negotiations for the metal and electrical industries will only begin in October, but the discussions in the collective bargaining committees have already started. The employee survey on the demands with which IG Metall wants to go into the negotiations will start on June 1st. (...) The first question in the form is: "How do you assess the economic situation in your company?" Only then are topics that concern colleagues asked: rising food prices, housing costs, health costs, job security, the future of the company, further training opportunities, training and taking on young people, and pensions. You then have the option of sorting your own idea of ​​the wage requirement: “strong”, “moderate”, “small” or “no wage increase at all” – these are the possible answers. There is no provision for specifying a wage increase in euros or percent. It is therefore left to the interpretation of the evaluators whether a significant increase is 3 or 10 percent, 50 or 500 euros. The last question is about the willingness of those surveyed to get involved – that is, to become a member, to get information, to take part in warning strikes or to go on strike “if it is necessary”. This questionnaire will be of little help in determining claims. It appears that expectations are to be dampened - also because the question about the economic situation was chosen as the starting point. (…) Real wages have been declining since 2018. In addition, the employment security agreements have also reduced real wages because collective bargaining standards have been lowered there."In particular, above-tariff allowances are reduced or completely abolished; in individual cases, existing collective agreements are also terminated. The collective bargaining interventions not only affect wage components and special payments, but also working time regulations. (...) They mean real wage losses for the majority of employees in the industry," says the WSI. (…) One thing is as certain as the amen in church: the capitalists will complain loudly. Hildegard Müller, President of the Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), complained in the Tagesschau on May 13th about the high wage costs and the serious and ongoing location crisis. The closer we get to the statement of demands, the louder the capitalists' lamentation becomes. But our colleagues must not let this deter them. There is no right time for capital to give a good wage increase. It always wants – whether in a crisis or a boom – to push down wages in order to increase profits. The fact is – and the WSI figures also show this – that most companies continue to make profits despite falling profit margins. They’re just lower than the profits they want.” Article by Christa Hourani in UZ from May 29, 2026

See last: Dossier:Metal and electrical collective bargaining round 2024: “We want more money because we need it” (7 percent more wages for 12 months)

The graphic for the dossier is from the metal and electrical collective bargaining round 2024: “We want more money because we need it” (7 percent more wages for 12 months) (IG Metall)

The postMetal and electrical collective bargaining round 2026 for 5% more money, job security and profit sharing for boom companiesappeared firstLabourNet Germany.