Austria: the biggest metal employers’ organization wants to secede for collective negotiations

The biggest sectoral federation wants to negotiate individually.  The fall collective bargaining session in the metal industry wasn’t supposed to start in the spring.  However, it is pretty much what happened after the FMMI declared, on April 24, that, in the future, it would negotiate sectoral collective agreements “directly and independently.”  Until last year and for more than 40 years, on employers’ side, collective agreements in the metal industry were negotiated by a community of six sectoral federations: the Federation of Machine-tool and Metalware, the Foundry Federation, the Mining and Steel Federation, the Communal Gas and Heating Control Federation, the Non-ferrous Metal Industry Federation and, finally, the Automotive Federation.  Combined, the affiliated businesses of these six federations employ nearly 165,000 people.  The FMMI (120,000 employees) leaving is therefore not an insignificant event.  The Foundry Federation, much smaller, is also talking about leaving the “community.” 
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that, in the future, it would negotiate sectoral collective agreements “directly and independently.” Until last year and for more than 40 years, on employers’ side, collective agreements in the metal industry were negotiated by a community of six sectoral federations: the Federation of Machine-tool and Metalware, the Foundry Federation, the Mining and Steel Federation, the Communal Gas and Heating Control Federation, the Non-ferrous Metal Industry Federation and, finally, the Automotive Federa

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