After the 4th bargaining round failed on October 22, affecting 120,000 of the sector’s 180,000 employees, Pro-Ge and DPA-djp, the metalworkers’ unions, decided to take a harder line and immediately went on to a total, open strike. This is extremely rare in Austria where, usually, collective negotiations are, at worst, punctuated by warning strikes. On Thursday, the Austrian Trade Union Confederation agreed to this operation. If no deal is struck by then, the strike will start on Monday, October 29 at 6 am. The social partners aren’t just fighting on the level of wage increases. Actually, employers and unions have been fighting for more than 2 years. Employers are pushing for more flexible working time while unions never accepted that the sector’s 6 employers’ organizations imposed individual collective negotiations – one federation at a time. (Ref. 130653)
Unusual threat of open strike. As Die Presse, the Viennese paper, ironically says, in a country where strikes “last seconds,” the announcement made by the metal unions seems like a bomb. After the 4th meeting with the FMMI – the largest employers’ organization in the sector – failed, the Pro-Ge (metal) and DPA-djp (private sector) unions decided to brutally increase pressure over employers.
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