The third round of collective bargaining in Germany’s metal and electrical engineering industries in North Rhine-Westphalia is scheduled to begin in Düsseldorf at 2 p.m. on Monday, 9 November. Ahead of the talks, 52,800 workers in the state have taken part in warning strikes, according to IG Metall.
Since the end of the no-strike obligation on 1 November, employees at 610 companies across NRW have joined the actions. On 6 November alone, about 7,500 workers at 77 companies stopped work. Nationwide, more than 400,000 employees had taken part in 3,800 warning-strike actions by that date.
The negotiations affect around 640,000 workers in North Rhine-Westphalia. IG Metall is seeking a five per cent pay increase over 12 months, alongside commitments to protect jobs, industrial sites and investment.
The employers’ offer, presented on 27 October, includes a one-off payment in July 2027 equal to one per cent of average annual collectively agreed gross pay. The payment could be adjusted depending on a company’s financial position. The offer also provides for a 1.3 per cent increase in pay scales from July 2028, with the agreement running for 26 months until 31 December 2028.
The dispute also concerns job and site security, whether payments should be more closely tied to companies’ financial performance, sickness absence and the pace of artificial-intelligence adoption in workplaces. The outcome will directly matter to employees covered by the sectoral agreements, including workers of Turkish origin in the region. No agreement has yet been reached ahead of Monday’s meeting.
