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Zwickau / Leipzig (dpa / sn) - With massive warning strikes, the collective bargaining conflict in the metal and electrical industry in Saxony has expanded.
Around 12,000 employees stopped work on Friday, said a spokeswoman for IG Metall in the afternoon.
Accordingly, production came to a standstill in six plants in Zwickau, Hainichen, Chemnitz, Dresden and Meerane.
According to IG Metall, Volkswagen and Thyssenkrupp, among others, were affected.
The strike should last a total of 24 hours until Saturday morning.
At a rally at the VW factory in Zwickau, which was staged like a drive-in cinema, trade union representatives and Minister of Economic Affairs Martin Dulig (SPD) spoke. Workers sat in cars in a parking lot in front of a stage. Because of the corona pandemic, there were no large gatherings. In addition to the six full-day warning strikes, there were two smaller, short-term strikes at Siemens and VW plants in Chemnitz, according to IG Metall.
"A new social movement is emerging in Saxony," said Dulig, according to a message at the rally.
It is a scandal that 30 years after reunification equal pay for equal work is still not a matter of course, the minister criticized.
The current conflict goes far beyond a single labor dispute: "It's about the self-empowerment of employees and people in the East as a whole."
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Since the beginning of March, workers in the industry have been backing up their demands with warning strikes.
The strikes on Friday were the largest in the current dispute to date.
On Tuesday there was the first full-day warning strike at the Leipzig BMW plant, on Thursday there was a strike at Porsche.
The collective bargaining dispute is about 4 percent more money and financial compensation for the longer weekly working hours of 38 instead of 35 hours compared to western Germany.
The trade unionists call this a collective adjustment allowance.
This requirement in particular has become a sticking point and is strictly rejected by the Association of the Saxon Metal and Electrical Industry.
The employers are striving to reach an agreement based on the pilot degree in North Rhine-Westphalia and refer to other eastern German states where this has already happened.
The union wants to continue to pressure in the coming days.
A spokesman for IG Metall announced further all-day warning strikes in the coming week.
The exact locations have not yet been named.
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IG Metall press release on the strikes