The return of “wildcat strikes” in the metalworking industry

“Do the bosses want class struggle? Then they’re going to get it!”

On 23 June, a statement was published by 700 IG Metall shop stewards at Mercedes in Untertürkeim: “Enough is enough. Protest, resistance, strike! Do the bosses want class struggle? Then that’s what they are going to get!” On behalf of 16,000 union members, they are demanding that the IG Metall leadership “organise demonstrations against the bosses’ greed, against the government and for a better future. Right up to a strike. And if the union leaders dither, then we’ll take matters into our own hands.”

And indeed, on 26 June, the Mercedes metalworkers staged a “production stoppage”. They explain in a leaflet: “The morning shift isn’t here in full force today: more than 500 colleagues from Hall 9 decided, during their lunch break, that, since our children are entitled to a day off because of the heatwave, we should look after them. This tension stems from the demands being imposed on us by management: they want us to work longer hours and take pay cuts. At the same time, the government is debating raising the retirement age to 70 and making further massive cuts to healthcare, pensions and education… We’re not having any of it!”

This is what is known as a “wildcat strike”. A new situation is thus emerging in the class struggle. As our colleagues in Untertürkeim have written: “If the union leaders dither, then we’ll take matters into our own hands.”

Faced with attacks on wages and the threat of scrapping the 35-hour working week – Mercedes wants to revert to a 40-hour week – the workers are taking the initiative to walk out and are combining this with a declaration of war on the government, which seeks to destroy pensions, the right to sick leave and education.

The IG Metall leadership is forced to attempt to “co-opt” these struggles, which it has been unable to control. On 3 July, it therefore called for demonstrations at the factory gates at all Mercedes sites, “kicking off a hot summer and autumn”.

But workers are being called upon to mobilise separately, company by company, rather than in a united front bringing together those at Volkswagen, Ford, Stellantis, Mercedes, etc. And the IG Metall leadership has omitted from its calls for demonstrations any rejection of the Merz government’s anti-worker measures – against the war economy and the war itself – remaining trapped within the “sacred union”.

But for how much longer will it retain the ability to enforce discipline amongst union members in the factories?

H.-W. Schuster