Mercedes-Benz Workers Protest Violation of Contract

09/30/96

The Associated Press reported that over 25,000 employees at Mercedes-Benz staged protests Thursday in response to company's announcement that it cut sick pay benefits by 20 percent.

Mercedes' parent company Daimler-Benz announced last week that it would implement the cuts on October 1, slashing sick pay benefits back to the new legal minimum, and breaking contracts that the company currently has with workers. On September 13th the German parliament passed a broadly criticized law that allows companies to pay workers on sick leave only 80 percent of their salary. Previously German law required companies to pay 100% to sick workers. Daimler's current contract with workers runs through the end of 1998. The company's decision affects some 220,000 German employees.

The trade union response to Daimler-Benz's move was swift. All 15,000 workers at Mercedes car production plant in Sindelfingen left work 2 1/2 hours early, 6,000 workers at Mercedes' Unterturkheim factory stopped work, 3,000 Mercedes workers in Bremen stopped work for an hour, and another 2,000 employees demonstrated in front of the Mercedes-Benz works at Esslingen-Mettingen, holding signs that said "we will not be plundered."

Helmut Lense, head of the Mercedes-Benz works councils, told protesters at Esslingen, "this is just the beginning."

A day after Daimler-Benz announced that it would cut workers' benefits, Siemens AG, Germany's largest electronics company, and chemical giants BASF AG and Hoechst AG said they would also adopt the policy as soon as possible. German labor organizations responded to these announcements, too: the IG Metall metalworkers union threatened to disrupt work at each company in the sector that implements the new law. the IG Metall union said it plans a mass demonstration Oct. 10 in Stuttgart led by union chairman Klaus Zwickel.

In addition to demonstrating publicly about the violation of their contracts, the union terminated an agreement for special Saturday shifts at Mercedes auto factories in Stuttgart, Sindelfingen and Bremen. The union indicated that not working the extra Saturday shift at the Sindelfingen plant alone will result in a production loss of 800 cars per week, at a time when many models are on backorder.

In addition to sick pay reductions, the government's new $16 billion austerity program raises the retirement age, makes it easier for companies to fire workers, and reduces government subsidies for recuperation at health spas.

Paul Dever -- The Auto Channel