Warning strike by IG Metall paralyzes MTU at the air base

Created: 11/11/2022, 07:00

By: Hans Moritz

Around 100 employees, which is almost the entire workforce, went on strike at MTU at Erding Air Base on Thursday morning.

© IG Metall

Nothing works anymore, it was said on Thursday morning at the Erdinger plant of the aviation and mechanical engineering group MTU on the grounds of the air base. 

Erding - IG Metall had called for a warning strike, almost all of the approximately 100 civilian employees joined.

From 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. they stopped their work.

This is reported by Daniele Frijia from IG Metall.

Only the two dozen or so soldiers employed in cooperation with the Bundeswehr and the executives were left out.

And why the industrial action that the union is calling for in numerous companies these days?

"Specifically, it's about eight percent more regular pay," explains Frijia, who is not only a cashier at IG Metall in Munich, but also sits on the supervisory board of MTU AG as an employee representative.

“In the previous collective bargaining rounds, we got a lot out of work-life balance and job security for employees.

Now we are focusing on more monthly payment.”

The metal and electrical industry is "robust".

The profits and dividend payments are proof of this.

“No metric indicates that we are facing a catastrophe.

These are not easy times, but they are not times that justify a clear round," Frijia told our newspaper.

And Bernd Holmburger, works council member at the Erding plant, points out: “We are maintaining the military capability of the Air Force here.

We definitely deserve a wage increase for that.”

His colleague Thomas Stocker seconded: "The previous offers are de facto a zero round and an absolute cheek.

A one-off payment for a period of 30 months is not sustainable.” This collective bargaining round is different, “for many of us it is vitally important in order to be able to pay our living expenses for the next few months”.

MTU works council chief Josef Mailer is convinced: "MTU will again significantly exceed its targets in 2022 and can therefore afford an eight percent wage increase."