German Manufacturers Brace for Strikes on Deadlocked Wage Talks

IG Metall threatens 24-hour walkouts if no deal is reached
Negotiations in Baden-Wuerttemberg ended without result

An employee watches drive mechanism testing on a Siemens Somatom computerized tomography (CT) scanner machine at the Siemens AG Healthineers factory in Forchheim, Germany, on Wednesday, July 19, 2017. Siemens said it's moving ahead with a planned split from its health-care division as Europe's largest engineering company whittles down its core holdings to focus on energy and factory equipment.Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg

Provide news feedback or report an error

Confidential tip?

Send a tip to our reporters

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

By Christoph Rauwald and Carolynn Look

January 25, 2018 at 7:20 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Daimler AG, Siemens AG and other German manufacturers face potential production halts after failing to make progress in a contract dispute over wages and work hours with the country’s most powerful union.

IG Metall, which represents 3.9 million workers, will meet Thursday to discuss the state of negotiations after talks ended Wednesday without a deal. The union, which has rallied more than 900,000 people across Germany for hour-long protests in recent weeks, has threatened to intensify pressure on employers by calling day-long walkouts that would have a much more disruptive impact.