Walkouts halt Mercedes production

Thousands of DaimlerChrysler workers walked off their shifts today, extending protests against the automaker’s threats to cut jobs in Germany unless employees accept steps to cut labour costs.

Some 14,500 workers took part in stoppages at two Mercedes plants near the company’s German base at Stuttgart, halting production of some 1,000 vehicles at the Untertuerkheim plant alone, employee representatives said.

DaimlerChrysler workers across Germany staged walkouts and protest rallies on Thursday, prompting an appeal by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder for employees and management to allay the dispute, though he said he would not get involved.

DaimlerChrysler says labour costs at its plant in Sindelfingen are higher than at another German factory in Bremen. The company has threatened to move production of future Mercedes-Benz C-class model cars to Bremen and South Africa unless it gets €500m in annual savings at Sindelfingen.

The struggle over labour costs at DaimlerChrysler’s plants are part of a pattern by German industry to press workers for concessions, particularly in the form of longer hours.

Electronics and engineering giant Siemens AG last month won an agreement from workers at a phone repair facility in north-western Germany to work 40 hours instead of 35 for no added pay to avoid seeing 2,000 jobs move to lower-wage Hungary.

General Motors Europe said on Thursday it needs to save €100m across the continent, saying only competitiveness on cost could secure jobs.