In order to save threatened jobs in the metal and auto industries, union leader IG Metall is digging proven ideas from the toolbox. Jörg Hofmann, interviewed by Süddeutsche Zeitung , proposes to place the four-day week at the center of future branch negotiations in 2021. Head of the most powerful union in Germany, with its 2.3 million members, he remains unclear on details but evokes a "wage compensation" for workers and a tool to avoid "expensive social plans" . The proposal, presented as a win-win, jumped in the ranks of employers."A four-day week with a wage adjustment would further worsen the productive shock the German economy is suffering , " warns Steffen Kampeter, director of the main employers' union, BDA, in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung .
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In the second quarter, GDP across the Rhine fell by 10.1%. "There are few reserves left in companies
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