IG Metall and the employers' association have met for collective bargaining.
There was no agreement.
Tomorrow, Tuesday, March 2, the peace obligation will end and workers in the district can start warning strikes.
District - Twelve companies with a total of around 3,000 employees are directly affected by the collective bargaining in the Weilheim-Schongau district, said Helmut Dinter, first authorized representative of IG Metall.
The largest of these is Hoerbiger Antriebstechnik in Schongau and Penzberg with 680 employees, the smallest is Beluk in Schongau with 63 employees.
However, the entire Hoerbiger company does not have a direct collective agreement, but a so-called recognition collective agreement - i.e. a collective agreement with an employer who is not bound by the employers' association, in which the validity of the collective agreements of an industry is agreed.
This means that IG Metall Weilheim also counts Hoerbiger among the companies directly affected.
Negotiations also affect companies that are not bound by collective bargaining agreements
Nevertheless, the negotiations also affect the companies that are not bound by collective bargaining agreements, as Andreas Neugebauer, works council chairman at Xylem Analytics and member of the local executive committee of IG Metall, says.
He knows how a collective agreement can affect these companies because the new house agreement from Xylem at the Weilheim location is strongly based on the collective agreement.
It is therefore important "that the area closes well and strong, because we also benefit from it with the in-house collective agreements".
This is also how Tobias Riesemann, Chairman of the Works Council at Kennametal in Schongau, sees it.
The company itself is not bound by collective bargaining agreements, but is strongly oriented towards it.
"One fights not only for those bound by collective bargaining agreements, but for everyone."
But why is it that IG Metall and the employers' association cannot come to an agreement?
In the three nationwide negotiation rounds taking place at the same time, which are divided into individual districts, the employers described how negative the corona pandemic had affected the companies.
IG Metall: Corona pandemic only marginally affected most companies
IG Metall sees it differently: Although many companies are affected, the coronavirus has only marginally affected most of them.
“In the last collective bargaining round, almost all companies came out of the boom phase.
There is no reason to pretend that the provisions have all been used up by Corona, ”says Dinter.
The situation of the companies in the Weilheim-Schongau district could not be more different, as the press conference shows.
The worst thing was the Aerotech company in Peißenberg.
"Since April 2020 we only have around 30 percent of the order situation," says works council chairman Klaus Kees.
Almost all of them are on short-time work, and that will not be enough until New Year's Eve 2021.
“Our problem is that we only come in third row when there is an upward trend in the flight.
The air is getting very thin with us. ”But Dinter is certain: The collective agreement demanded by the employers' association would not bring any improvement to Aerotech.
Bayram Yerli sees it that way too.
For many years he was the chairman of the works council at Hörmann Automotive in Penzberg (HAP) and is still an honorary second authorized representative of IG Metall Weilheim.
"We have experienced it for a long time at HAP and have always renounced it, and still doing without it did not save us."
Corona time with and without short-time work
The Kennametal company from Schongau was able to cope with the crisis without short-time work and even had to "struggle to get the extra work done," says Riesemann.
The Hoerbiger Flow Control companies in Altenstadt and Hoerbiger Kompressor Technik in Schongau also managed to get through with virtually no short-time work.
The Weilheim company Xylem Analytics only sent 20 of the approximately 380 employees on short-time work for two months.
The Zarges employees in Weilheim were also only on short-time work for a short time - the company is fully bound by collective bargaining agreements.
"Not since October, the order situation is great again," explains Judith Neumann.
"We want a four percent pay increase or that some of it is converted into secure jobs," explains Dinter.
For the employer, this requirement is too high.
They say: "There is nothing to distribute, so zero percent." In addition, the employers' association wants to provide the collective agreements with differentiation and variability at the company level.
This means that, for example, the holiday and Christmas bonus can be reduced without the involvement of the works council if things are not going well for the company.
The employers also want to be able to make structural changes deviating from the collective agreement at any time, explains Dinter.
IG Metall does not want any of this under any circumstances.
Dinter's fear that there will be no agreement by Monday has probably been confirmed.
The peace obligation ends tomorrow, Tuesday - there will probably be warning strikes this week, says Dinter.
But is labor dispute the right way to go in times of recession?
"Yes," Dinter is certain.
From the employer's point of view, there is never the right time for this - regardless of whether the company is doing well or badly.
"We have to enforce job security for our colleagues," says Dinter.
Patrick Grabanyi, youth secretary at IG Metall, explains that the apprentices must also be taken on for an unlimited period.
"Dual students are not affected by the tariff, they should definitely be reworked."