IG Metall has prepared its members for the potentially decisive round of negotiations in the wage dispute in the metal and electrical industry with further warning strikes.

More than 70,000 union members demonstrated on Monday in support of IG Metall's demand for a seven percent pay rise or stopped work for a few hours. The focus was on the Bavarian and coastal districts, whose negotiators want to sound out the chances of reaching an agreement for the 3.9 million employees in the industry together with the employers' associations in a luxury hotel in Hamburg this evening (4.30 pm). The negotiations could go on into the night. The heads of IG Metall and the employers' association Gesamtmetall, Christiane Benner and Stefan Wolf, will also be present.

In Bavaria alone, 43,000 metalworkers from 117 companies went on strike at times, according to the union. The largest number, 15,000, were at a large demonstration at the car manufacturer Audi in Ingolstadt. In Munich, there were two demonstrations with 4,500 participants each at BMW and at MAN Truck & Bus, MTU and other companies. "Everyone saw that the employees are also prepared to take tougher strike action if necessary," said Horst Ott, the Bavarian district manager and chief negotiator. In the event that the talks in Hamburg fail, the union has threatened 24-hour strikes.

At a rally at the Hamburg fish market, IG Metall boss Christiane Benner said that the union was anxious and prepared to "find a solution here and now". In recent weeks, there have been many exploratory rounds, "which have made the will to reach an agreement clear on both sides", said coastal district manager Daniel Friedrich. However, they are far apart when it comes to money, the central issue. The employers have so far offered a 3.6 percent increase in wages and salaries in two stages over a period of two years and three months. The first step is not due to take place until July 2025.

The lead negotiator for the Bavarian employers, Angelique Renkhoff-Mücke, estimated the chances of an agreement at just over 50 percent on Friday. "We both have to jump over a little stick, but maybe it's also a big stick."

(Report by Alexander Hübner. Edited by Olaf Brenner. If you have any queries, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)