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To: yard_man who wrote (163948)	5/5/2002 7:47:28 PM
From: Haim R. Branisteanu	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 436258

Germany's IG Metall union readies strike Copyright © 2002 AP Online By DAVID McHUGH, AP Business Writer FRANKFURT, Germany (May 5, 2002 10:27 a.m. EDT) - Germany's main industrial union was poised to strike over wages Sunday in a move that could slow the recovery of Europe's biggest economy. Auto workers expected to boycott the night shift at DaimlerChrysler's flagship car plant. Leaders of the 2.7 million-member IG Metall union, which also represents workers in electronics and engineering, say they'll disrupt production with one-day work stoppages at major employers in southern Baden-Wuerttemberg state, a heartland of German manufacturing. The union told some 2,000 workers at DaimlerChrysler's sprawling Sindelfingen works to stay home from the late shift that begins at 10:30 p.m. The plant is the largest production facility for Mercedes-Benz cars, the German-American company's most consistent profit-maker. The stoppage is to spread Monday to U.S.-headquartered tractor maker John Deere, which has a plant in Mannheim, and car makers Porsche and Audi. Any wage settlement in Baden-Wuerttemberg is expected to set the pattern for workers across Germany. Most contracts are negotiated between unions and regional employer associations representing entire industries, not company by company. Pay talks broke down April 19 after the union rejected the employers' offer of a 3.3 percent increase for 15 months. Employers say they can't go any higher, and some economists say any increase over 3 percent endangers jobs and fuels inflation. The union has said it wants a 6.5 percent increase as part of a one-year deal to compensate workers for moderate increases in the past, inflation and higher productivity, though observers expect it to settle for less. The union has moved toward strike action despite appeals from Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder for a deal that doesn't trample signs of economic recovery in Germany, which suffered a mild recession in the second half of last year. Schroeder, a Social Democrat who relies heavily on union support, faces national parliamentary elections Sept. 22 that will decide whether he gets another four years in office. Conservative challenger Edmund Stoiber, the governor of Bavaria, has lambasted Schroeder for the country's sluggish growth and its unemployment rate of 10 percent.