BERLIN (Dispatches) - Metal and electrical industry workers in Germany’s southwestern state of Baden-Wurttemberg continued strikes Tuesday over wages and job security, German newspaper Welt reported.
Employees gathered in Stuttgart’s Feuerbach district, including workers from technology company Bosch, following walkouts at several locations Monday.
IG Metall Stuttgart estimated that around 1,000 employees attended the joint rally.
Workers at automotive supplier Mahle were also called to participate, although a company spokesperson said operations had not been disrupted.
Monday’s industrial action included walkouts at medical technology company Aesculap in Tuttlingen, according to the union.
The strikes followed two rounds of collective bargaining that failed to produce an agreement.
IG Metall is demanding a 5% wage increase over 12 months, along with guarantees for jobs and production sites.
During the second round of talks, employers offered a one-time payment next year and a 1.3% wage increase from July 2028, citing difficult economic conditions and high costs facing German industry.
Negotiations are scheduled to resume Thursday in Ludwigsburg.
“We will not be fobbed off with a sham,” said Barbara Resch, IG Metall’s district manager.
She said genuine job security could not be achieved at employees’ expense or by weakening collective bargaining standards.
“Thursday will reveal whether the employers are truly committed to making a genuine contribution to the future of jobs in Baden-Württemberg,” Resch said.
In Bangladesh, paramilitary forces were deployed in industrial suburbs around the capital as protests by garment sector workers demanding a wage hike stretched into their fourth day on Tuesday, defying calls to return to factories.
Protesters were on the streets despite the government’s announcement of a board to review the minimum wage in the vital garment industry, which employs millions of people and generates the bulk of Bangladesh’s export earnings.
Police have filed cases against thousands of unidentified protesters for torching police vehicles and damaging property, with 58 officers injured since protests began, police spokesperson Kamarum Munira said.