IG Metall has begun warning strikes at German metal and electrical engineering plants after the bargaining peace obligation expired at the end of October. The first short stoppages started on 1 November, with further action organised for Monday at sites in automotive manufacturing, metals processing, engineering and equipment production.
The collective bargaining sector employs around 3.7 million people, but that is the number covered by the industry rather than the number joining the stoppages. IG Metall plans actions at more than 2,000 companies before the end of the week. That planned campaign is separate from the initial stoppages confirmed for 1–2 November.
Employers have proposed a one-off payment in July 2027 worth 1% of average collectively agreed annual gross pay, subject to differentiation arrangements, followed by a 1.3% increase in pay scales from July 2028. The proposed agreement would run until the end of December 2028. IG Metall opposes the delay before the increase in regular wages, arguing that purchasing power would continue to erode in the meantime.
The union is seeking a 5% pay rise over 12 months, together with employment safeguards, a form of profit-sharing for employees at strongly performing businesses and provisions for lower-paid staff and trainees. The two sides are also disputing how agreements should accommodate employers facing weak orders, especially where investment and employment plans are under pressure.
Both sides are negotiating across regional collective bargaining districts rather than through a single agreement for every German manufacturer. A settlement in one district can influence others, but pay arrangements, workforce composition and the scope for plant-level variations differ. The regional structure also affects the timing and organisation of stoppages, which are called by the union rather than by individual works councils acting independently.
In northern Germany, more than 30 employees at Speira’s Hamburg aluminium rolling and recycling operation stopped work for two hours shortly after midnight on Sunday, according to IG Metall Küste. Further actions were scheduled around Mercedes and Lear in Bremen, STILL, ArcelorMittal and Philips Medical in Hamburg, Siemens Gamesa in Cuxhaven, Krones in Flensburg and engineering operations in Rostock.
The Berlin-Brandenburg-Saxony district reported stoppages beginning at Siemens Energy Global during the night from Sunday into Monday. Separate reports from Lower Saxony identified action at automotive supplier KSM Castings, while IG Metall’s Mannheim organisation reported 150 workers leaving a ZF Wabco early shift and additional participation by later shifts. These are specific regional reports; they should not be extrapolated into a nationwide participation total.
Warning strikes are short, union-organised stoppages during active negotiations rather than open-ended industrial action. A factory’s immediate production loss depends on which shift stops, the interruption’s duration and whether the affected operation is a bottleneck for subsequent processes. Some plants can rearrange work or use work-in-progress buffers, while others have little room to recover a missed production window.
Automotive manufacturers and their suppliers have tightly connected component flows, so short interruptions can require changes to shift sequencing and logistics arrangements even when lost production is later recovered. Larger industrial plants may have buffers, alternative shifts or work in progress that reduce the immediate effect. The available reports do not establish industry-wide output losses, factory shutdowns or a measurable aggregate supply chain disruption from the first two days of action.
The employer organisation Gesamtmetall wants automatic differentiation provisions extended, allowing payments to reflect difficult conditions at individual businesses. Its wider negotiating position also includes an investment and employment instrument, as well as discussions about absence costs and faster adoption of AI. Those requests sit alongside the proposed pay terms and help explain the scope of disagreement.
The union’s counter-position combines higher wages with negotiated employment safeguards. IG Metall has argued that a single settlement must recognise both manufacturers facing weak orders and businesses benefiting from stronger markets, including some aerospace, defence, shipbuilding and energy operations. The different performance of those sectors makes the bargaining round a test of how far industry-wide pay rules can be adjusted without producing separate agreements for every company.
Negotiations continue in the regional bargaining districts as strikes unfold. In the northern coastal district, another meeting with employers is expected on 6 November in Bremen. The size and duration of further stoppages will depend on the local strike programme and progress in those talks.
Industrial plants are accommodating the stoppages alongside existing schedules and customer commitments. Recovery of delayed operations depends on labour availability, machine utilisation and the timing of materials and downstream shipments. A short interruption at a bottleneck can be harder to absorb than the same stoppage at a station with work-in-progress buffers.
Stoppages were under way by Monday, with further companies included in IG Metall’s published action programme. Regional negotiations continue, including the scheduled 6 November meeting in Bremen, alongside the union’s planned actions for the rest of the week.
