Yesterday, Monday 21 September, the IG Metall union called on employees in the German automotive industry to take part in a national day of action that brought together, according to the organisers, around 175,000 workers, compared to the 100,000 expected, across more than 220 sites. Company assemblies, active lunch breaks, star marches and other rallies were on the agenda under a unified slogan: “A future rather than deep cuts, cohesion is our greatest asset”. At Mercedes-Benz in Sindelfingen, where nearly 20,000 employees gathered yesterday morning, the threats by CEO Ola Källenius regarding the retention of plants and his austerity policy were in the protesters’ crosshairs: “The board of directors has lost all sense of reality regarding the employees.
As a Berlin correspondent for the French and Swiss press since the late 1990s, I cover a wide range of economic, political and social issues, with a particular focus on the German business and labour market. My areas of interest include co-determination, digitalisation, demographics and ESG/DEI policies.