BERLIN, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- More than 400,000 workers across Germany have joined nationwide protests and warning strikes this week to demand higher wages and greater job security, the country's largest trade union IG Metall said Friday.
Since Sunday, more than 413,000 workers in the metal and electrical industries have taken part in over 2,800 strike actions and protests nationwide, exceeding participation during the same period of the 2024 wage negotiations, according to IG Metall.
The industrial action came amid ongoing wage negotiations covering some 3.7 million workers in Germany's metal and electrical industries, including carmakers, machinery manufacturers and their suppliers, the union said in an earlier statement.
IG Metall is demanding a 5 percent pay rise over 12 months, while employers have offered a 1.3 percent wage increase from July 2028, a proposal the union has rejected, saying it would amount to a cut in real wages.
German manufacturers have faced mounting pressure in recent years from high labor and energy costs and prolonged economic weakness, leading many companies to cut jobs and implement cost-cutting measures.
IG Metall president Christiane Benner said workers would not accept across-the-board cost-cutting programs aimed at protecting corporate profits at the expense of wages, stressing that innovation and investment, rather than wage cuts, were needed to revive German industry.
The warning strikes have affected major German manufacturers. In the southern state of Bavaria, around 3,000 workers each from BMW, Audi and Bosch joined protests, the union said.
In northern Germany, some 12,400 workers at four Airbus sites joined protests on Thursday, while around 3,300 Mercedes-Benz employees in Bremen took part in warning strikes earlier in the week, according to the union.
