Strikes Loom at Daimler, Siemens as Talks Fail

IG Metall plans 24-hour walkouts next week as no deal reached
BMW braces for production losses as strikes set to escalate

Chairman of the employers' association Südwestmetall Stefan Wolf and President of Gesamtmetall employers' association, Rainer Dulger, are pictured after the termination of the fifth round of negotiations with IG Metall metalworkers' union, in Stuttgart on Jan. 27. — Chairman of the employers' association Südwestmetall Stefan Wolf and President of Gesamtmetall employers' association, Rainer Dulger, are pictured after the termination of the fifth round of negotiations with IG Metall metalworkers' union, in Stuttgart on Jan. 27.
Photographer: Sebastian Gollnow/DPA via Getty Images

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By Elisabeth Behrmann, Christoph Rauwald, Carolynn Look, and Paul Abelsky

January 27, 2018 at 12:03 PM UTC

Updated on

January 27, 2018 at 2:06 PM UTC

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Germany’s most powerful union is escalating a dispute over wages and flexible working hours with day-long strikes planned for next week that threaten to hit major industrial companies from Siemens AG to Daimler.

Talks with IG Metall, which represents some 3.9 million workers in Europe’s largest economy, broke off without a deal early Saturday following 16 hours of negotiations preceded by weeks of tense back-and-forth. The union, which has rallied about 960,000 people across Germany for one-hour protests in recent weeks, said it plans day-long walkouts that would be much more disruptive.