Germany’s electronics and metals union IG Metall together with its Hungarian counterpart VASAS announced they were strengthening their already long-term collaboration by opening a common training and consultation center in Györ, an industrial town in the west of Hungary. Inaugurated on 14 January 2016 the center aims to develop training programs for unionists and improve working conditions, pay, and the rights of workers, especially those in German automaker production units and parts suppliers that are located in Hungary. IG Metall has an even broader objective, namely to knit together “international partnerships” with unions operating in German subsidiaries outside of Germany, especially in the United States and in Hungary. The union is trying to bring all workers along the production value chain in companies operating abroad into the IG Metall fold.
Hungary: a “test laboratory” for the German auto industry. Györ was not chosen by chance. Audi has a big plant in this town. According to IG Metall Germany’s auto industry has significantly expanded its production capacity in Hungary in recent years. Daimler has a production site in Kecskemét and Opel has a site close to the Austrian border.
Do you have information to share with us?