Thousands of car workers walk out in Germany

The first strike by Germany's biggest industrial union in seven years has moved into full gear.

The head of IG Metall is pledging to fight on until it gets an "acceptable result" as thousands of auto workers join a stoppage that many fear could slow the recovery of Europe's biggest economy.

The 2.7m-member union has brought 50,000 workers out on one-day strikes at car plants in southwestern Germany.

It has focused its attention on the Stuttgart headquarters of Porsche after the strike was launched Sunday night by the overnight shift at DaimlerChrysler's Sindelfingen plant.

Union officials handed out coffee and biscuits to several hundred people carrying red union flags - many of them sporting red plastic vests emblazoned with the words "we're on strike" - who gathered in the early-morning cold outside the Porsche works, where 2,500 members walked out.

"We are beginning a difficult task, and we don't know how difficult it will be," said union head Klaus Zwickel, addressing the Porsche workers from a stage in front of the gates.

He said the action would continue "until we get an acceptable result, acceptable to those who voted to strike."

"We are ready to talk straight away" if employers improve their offer, he insisted.

Pay talks broke down April 19 after the union rejected an offer of a 3.3% increase for 15 months, and employers say they can't go any higher.

The union says it wants a 6.5% pay increase in a one-year deal to compensate workers for moderate increases in the past, inflation and higher productivity, though observers expect it to settle for less.

IG Metall, which also represents workers in electronics and machine building, plans a series of one-day stoppages at major employers in southwestern Baden-Wuerttemberg state, a heartland of German manufacturing.

In addition to Porsche, it was targeting Monday fellow luxury carmaker Audi, two more DaimlerChrysler plants, and US-based tractor maker John Deere, which has a plant in Mannheim.