UPDATE:
IG Metall Warns of `Massive' Strikes Unless Wage Demand Is Met
March 14 (Bloomberg) -- Germany's IG Metall union, the world's biggest, threatened to stage ``massive'' warning strikes in the southern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, home to companies including DaimlerChrysler AG, if employers fails to address union wage demands by the end of March.
Today's second round of wage talks, affecting 800,000 workers in the region that last year posted the lowest jobless rate of Germany's 16 states, finished with no result, the union said in an e-mailed statement. A third set of talks will occur March 27, the day before a four-week peace period barring full- day strike action expires.
``Without a pay offer, there's no basis for constructive talks,'' chief union negotiator Joerg Hofmann was quoted in the statement as saying, while accusing the employers of ``delaying tactics.'' The union may stage ``massive warning strikes'' from March 29 if employers withhold a pay offer at the next meeting.
IG Metall is demanding a bigger slice of employers' profits, which have been boosted by more than 50,000 job cuts and a surge in exports over the past three years. Employers counter that wage inflation jeopardizes a domestic economy that's still recovering from five years of stagnation.
More than 71,000 workers have participated across Baden- Wuerttemberg in disruptions that IG Metall has staged since March 1 at companies including DaimlerChrysler and Robert Bosch GmbH. Seeking to prevent an excessive pay rise from further swelling Germany's labor costs, already among the world's highest, the Gesamtmetall employers' federation has said a raise of 1.2 percent, a quarter of IG Metall's demand, may be acceptable.
At about 27.60 euros ($33) per hour, wage costs in western Germany were the second-highest in the world after Denmark in 2004, the last year for which figures are available, according to the Cologne-based IW institute.
IG Metall has about 500,000 members in Baden-Wuerttemberg, where wage agreements are often seen as setting the agenda for the rest of the country. The union's 5 percent pay demand affects a nationwide 3.4 million workers whose pay contracts ran out on Feb. 28.
2nd talks went without positive results. Now, I worry!
Please continue to keep us "waiters" posted! 
