2023-09-08 09:23:31
The production union PRO-GE is driving in its stakes before the start of the metal workers’ wage round: The percentage demand for a wage increase is certainly in the double digits and reductions in working hours are an issue, according to PRO-GE boss Reinhold Binder. The one-off payments envisaged by the employers are at best “cheeks on bread”, it is about a sustainable increase, “and that can never be below the rolling inflation,” Binder emphasized to “Ö1” today.
Binder is distant about the fact that the employers called for “new solutions” in a press conference yesterday, Thursday, in the annual bargaining over the collective agreement (KV). “The call always comes when you want to take something away from the employees,” said the top trade unionist. A lot is conceivable, but in any case no deal below the level of inflation of the past twelve months. “What is currently happening here is a change in perspective so that employees lose money, we will not play along with that,” Binder made clear. He referred to the significantly increased cost of living and what he saw as the logical consequence: “First prices rose and now wages have to go up.”
The metal technology industry has generated record income in the past two years, exports are still going well, and now it is the employees’ turn to reap the success they have achieved, said Binder in the “Ö1-Morgenjournal”. This year, for the first time, he is leading the more than 130,000 employees in the metal technology industry into the autumn wage round. In total, the metal industry employs a good 200,000 people, but at the request of the employers, the other sectors of the industry negotiate in their own rounds. However, the degrees have always been the same in the past. The minimum wage in the metal industry is 2,236 euros gross.
Rolling inflation, i.e. the rate of inflation over the past twelve months, is 9.6 percent this year. The price increase is currently seven percent year-on-year. Last year, an increase of 7.44 percent in actual wages was agreed, with the increase consisting of an increase of 5.4 percent and a monthly payment of 75 euros. Rolling inflation was 6.4 percent a year ago.
Christian Knill, an industrialist from Styria and chairman of the Metal Technology Industry Association (FMTI), emphasized to journalists yesterday: “We can only distribute what we earn.” And he made it clear: “Our task is not to guarantee purchasing power in Austria.” In the spring, when looking back and looking forward to the industry, the FMTI figures looked like this: In 2022, price-adjusted production growth of 3.7 percent was achieved, thus increasing the production value to 49.5 billion euros. The number of employees rose slightly to 137,600 (2021: 136,400). The export quota was 79.1 percent. Overall, exports rose by 5.6 percent in real terms in 2022. Companies are expecting stagnation and lower margins this year, Knill said at the time.
In a survey at the beginning of the year, FMTI members predicted that they would expect average growth of less than one percent in 2023. Yesterday, Knill calculated: In the first half of 2023, the industry achieved a production value of 24.8 billion euros, which, adjusted for prices, corresponds to a decline of 5.5 percent compared to the previous year. Incoming orders fell by 18 percent in the same period. A drop in production of around 6 percent is expected for the year as a whole. Of the approximately 1,200 companies in the trade association, 85 percent are family businesses.
Almost at the same time as the FMTI, negotiations are also underway for the metalworking industry, followed by the largest KV round, the trade. Despite the media focus on the metal industry, further collective bargaining negotiations are constantly taking place. The milling and feed industry recently reported a wage and salary increase of 10.1 percent.
In addition to the increase in the account, the – usually annual – KV negotiations also deal with questions of framework law, such as a sixth week of vacation or a paid vacation day on December 24th. A recurring topic is the assumption of training costs for apprentices or for in-company further training by employers. On September 25th, the PRO-GE and GPA unions will present their demands to the employers, traditionally this takes place in the Chamber of Commerce in Vienna. All observers are expecting particularly tough negotiations this year, although the metallers have been proving for decades that they have a lot of strength.
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