On September 25, 2014, collective wage negotiations started in the metal industry and will set the standard for Austria’s future wage trends. As has been the case for the past 2 years, each of the six employers federations, in a sector comprising 180,000 employees, negotiate salary levels. For once the employers federations are not simply putting forward economic uncertainty as the argument for asking the unions to accept only moderate wage rises. This time they question the viability in the short term of Austrian industry itself.
Apocalyptic tone from employers. “Can Austria really be a viable industrial production center?” This is the question that the Austrian Machine Tools Federation (MMI) put forward at the outset of the Austrian metal collective wage negotiations process. This main employers federation whose members employ between 120,000 and 180,000 indicated that orders have gone down by 3.7% whilst exports are lower by 2%. Christian Knill the federation’s president notes a 1.7% drop in employment and rema
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