Audi strike ends after wage hike deal

Left-wing outlets celebrate the victory of the Audi workers whose demands have been heeded by the management after a 6 day long strike which brought assembly lines in Hungary and even at the Audio mother factory in Germany to a standstill.
The management accepted an immediate wage increase of 18 per cent (over 20 per cent for the lowest paid) and further agreements on various bonuses. In response, the Audi Trade Union called off its strike one day ahead of schedule on Wednesday afternoon. The 9 thousand engines produced in the Győr plant daily are vital elements in the supply chains of dozens of automobile factories throughout Germany, including the main Audi plant at Ingolstadt where production will only resume on Monday.In Népszava, Dóra Varga reports that the strike at Győr was the longest wage strike in Hungary since the regime change 30 years ago (and probably for over a hundred years, since strikes were illegal under Communism and heavily restricted during the interwar period). Further negotiations are planned on some of the demands, namely on who will decide when employees will go on weekend leave, but Varga writes that the Unions sensed increasing strike fatigue and felt it wiser to end  their industrial action.

On Mérce, András Jámbor remarks that the victory of the Audi Trade Union is partly due to the solidarity of their German colleagues – the IGM Metal Workers’ Union  was openly on their side throughout. The alt-left commentator now hopes that further factories will follow suite and unions will be tougher in representing workers’ interests rather than engaging in deals with the managements behind closed doors.Audi strike ends after wage hike deal

Tags: strike, Trade Unions