AWorkers are struggling with soaring living costs, companies are slipping into recession under the pressure of extreme energy prices: the conditions for wage negotiations are more difficult this autumn than ever before. But while the collective bargaining parties in the public sector and in the metal and electrical industry are getting ready for protracted, conflict-ridden disputes, the pay round for 580,000 employees in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry is showing a completely different course – with chances of a quick, amicable solution later this month.
If the German Chemical Industry Employers’ Association (BAVC), which represents the 1,900 companies in the industry, has its way, then this is at least within the realm of possibility: companies and employees really have enough problems at the moment – “so we are all the more involved as collective bargaining parties on both sides in the It is our duty to work with all our strength on solutions for our members,” said the employer’s chief negotiator, Hans Oberschulte, of the FAZ. “We want to give October a chance.”