Workers at Siemens and Daimler are to begin day-long strikes that threatens disruption to production lines
Wage negotiations with the IG Metall union are going nowhere still for the past two weeks and German workers are having enough of it. They are planning to raise the stakes by halting work starting from today, with talks of planned strikes across 250 firms over three days.
The union has been pushing for a 6% pay jump over 12 months for workers in the industry, and also subsidised wages for those who have to care for kids or family members.
German unemployment rates are at a record low and the ECB would certainly like tighter labour market conditions to translate to higher wage growth - and in turn, inflation.
But if negotiations stall, and a compromise is found with something like additional childcare benefits and/or more working hours flexibility - then these are the kinds of inflationary pressures that the ECB can't work with.
And that is not something the ECB would welcome especially when they are hoping that inflationary pressures would allow them to remove policy stimulus in the near future.
Again, this is probably just a minor issue in the bigger picture, and it could all be blown over proportion - but it's something worth keeping an eye on.
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