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From Gunnar Klehm & Tobias Winzer
After a record 180-day strike, the trade union IG Metall the strike at SRW metalfloat in Espenhain near Leipzig officially ended on Monday. According to a statement from the union, this is the result of a strike ballot with the employees. At the same time, IG Metall criticized the company's conduct. The management had locked out strikers after an interruption to the strike.
"The Chinese shareholder has turned an everyday wage negotiation with a fairly modest demand into a culture war. When an employer is so adamantly opposed to trade unions, co-determination and legal certainty, there is no way open for a responsible solution based on social partnership," says Steffen Reißig, First Authorized Representative of IG Metall Leipzig. The task now is to help employees who are willing to change jobs to find employment in companies bound by collective agreements.
After 180 days of strike action, IG Metall suspended the strike on May 6 in order to pave the way for a joint solution to the wage dispute. The lockout of the employees will continue until May 31. The employer wants to continue negotiations with the works council, not with IG Metall, according to the statement.
"German labor law stipulates that issues such as wages, vacations and working hours must be negotiated collectively with a trade union," says Michael Hecker, second authorized representative of IG Metall Leipzig. "The works council is not responsible for conducting collective bargaining and demanding such things is not permitted. Scholz Recycling and SRW metalfloat are disregarding our German right of co-determination."
Company justifies lockout
SRW metalfloat also justified the lockout by stating that "it is objectively not possible to reintegrate the people taking part in the industrial action into the new structures that have now been established in the short term." Because there are no longer as many employees available due to the lockout, the company has switched from a three-shift to a two-shift operation, for example. There are also fears that the indefinite strike could be resumed at any time and without notice.
From the union's point of view, this justification is "outrageous", as stated in a press release. "Together with the works council, we visited the Managing Director of SRW, Thomas Müller, in person on May 3. We offered to jointly revise the shift system to enable smooth work processes. The managing director rejected this," explained Hecker. For example, the strikers first wanted to take the remaining leave from 2023.
No continued payment of wages
The decision to go back to work and break the strike was not an easy one for the strike management - after 180 days on strike. This was the longest strike by employees ever seen in Germany.
According to IG Metall, there has not been a lockout in Germany for 40 years. A lockout means that the employer forgoes the work offered by the striking employees. Despite a valid employment contract, no wages have to be paid during this time. The last known case of a lockout dates back to 2011, when the company Veolia locked out train drivers during a train drivers' strike. A court rejected this as inadmissible. However, only because not all strikers were locked out. This could be a different legal situation in the SRW case. It is not yet clear whether the courts will have to deal with it.
"Instead of responding to our outstretched hand, the lockout is a slap in the face for the employees of SRW," explained Hecker and continued: "We are appalled at the coldness and contempt with which our colleagues are being treated by those responsible at Scholz Recycling and SRW."
Employers are allowed to lock out
SRW regards it as a vested right to respond to strikes with lockouts. However, the legal framework for this is tight. The company merely announced that an end to the strike was "overdue". But it is also likely to be about money. In the event of a strike, IG Metall pays strike pay. This varies depending on the length of membership of the union and amounts to around 350 euros per week.
Since November 8, 2023, there has been a strike at SRW metalfloat in Espenhain near Leipzig. The main demand was for the company to be bound by a collective agreement, which has not yet been reached. IG Metall initially demanded an eight percent pay rise for employees, an increase in vacation and Christmas bonuses to €1,500 each and a reduction in the working week to 38 hours.
IG Metall later developed an in-house collective agreement based on the values and wages published by the company, which the employer voluntarily increased at the other German Group sites.
Willingness to strike was a problem
However, the union apparently estimated that employees were more willing to strike than they actually were. The company suffered considerable losses due to the loss of working hours. However, the non-striking employees were able to maintain operations in two shifts, albeit under extreme conditions.
In financial terms, IG Metall could have continued to pay strike pay to employees for longer. "Nobody will empty IG Metall's strike fund," it was said behind closed doors.
However, the company recently announced that key protagonists of the strike have left the company. The current chairman of the works council "has asked for his employment contract to be terminated as of April 30". The successor to the works council also wanted to leave the company. In the meantime, only a minority of employees are still on strike.
The union contradicts this. Just under 100 of the 180 employees took part in the strike. In the ballot at the beginning, as many as 90 percent voted in favor of a strike. In actual fact, however, fewer of them took part in the indefinite strike. In the administration, everyone continued to work as planned.
Company talks with works council
The company SRW Metalfloat is part of the Scholz Recycling Group based in Essingen in Baden-Württemberg. Daniel Fischer, Head of Finance Germany at Scholz Recycling, explained after the "personal decisions" of the works councils: "These should give the union officials food for thought. Our offer applies: if the works council of SRW metalfloat wants to negotiate again, we are ready."
At the end of 2016, Chiho Environmental Group Limited, a listed scrap recycling company from China, took over Scholz Holding GmbH and thus also SRW metalfloat. Chiho Environmental Group is based in Hong Kong and is registered in the Cayman Islands.
Politicians turned a blind eye
Numerous federal and state politicians had offered their help and mediation in the strike. Two weeks ago, 79 members of the Bundestag wrote an open letter calling on Scholz Recycling to conclude a collective agreement for SRW metalfloat and thus comply with a demand made by IG Metall. 78 members of parliament belong to the SPD and Bündnis90/Grüne parliamentary groups. Leipzig CDU member of parliament Jens Lehmann (CDU) also co-signed the letter. In response, the company spoke of "unacceptable political interference".
Left-wing politicians such as Gregor Gysi also visited the strikers at the plant gate and promised them their support. Even Saxony's Minister President Michael Kretschmer (CDU) visited the strikers and wanted to help mediate in the dispute with the employer. But even he was unable to get things moving.
