More than 250 employees of the wind turbine manufacturer Vestas have gone on strike on 1 December outside of the company’s German headquarters in Hamburg for a collective agreement.
Several hundred employees of Vestas, mainly employed in service and maintenance of wind turbines, have been on strike again nationwide since 29 November organised by German labour union IG Metall.
Rallies have been held in Husum, in Schleswig-Holstein and Thalfang, near Trier in Rhineland-Palatinate, in Waldbüttelbrunn near Würzburg in Bavaria and in Barleben near Magdeburg in Saxony-Anhalt.
“We don’t want anything outrageous.
“We want a collective agreement for the employees of the world market leader Vestas.
“Whether we negotiate or continue to strike, the decision lies with the management,” said Daniel Friedrich, district manager of IG Metall.
Serpil Midyatli, deputy federal chairwoman of the SPD, said, at the strike that collective agreements are right and important.
Around 300 Vestas employees affiliated with the union previously went on strike on 7 November. The union was calling for better working conditions, including greater transparency in remuneration, wage increases and equal pay for equal work.
In addition, it held four warning strikes earlier this year after Vestas broke off negotiations in July.