Strike closes eight German steel plants

Press, 29 November 1978, Page 9

Strike closes eight German steel plants

NZPA-Reuter Bonn West German steelworkers have begun their first official strike in 50 years to back demands for more pay and a cut in the working week to 35 hours. Some 37,000 workers in: eight steel plants on the] Ruhr, the industrial heart-; land of West Germany, are staying away from their! jobs. Employers retaliated by: announcing a partial lockout from Friday in eight other plants. That will keep 28,900 more away from work. A further 13,000 non-; union members at the strik-1 ing plants will also be; affected. The union wants a 5'

. per cent wage rise and the gradual introduction of a 35- : hour week for the 220,000 steel-workers in North Rhine-Westphalia and the towns of Osnabrueck and Bremen. ; The employers last week ; raised earlier offers to a ii 3 per cent pay rise and ■[six weeks annual holiday for jail. But they refused to con- ’ I Sider the 35-hour working 1 1 week, ; Their chairman Mr Franz- ; Josef Weisweiler, said the lock-out was aimed at keeping the strike as short as possible and averting damage to the industry. • A union spokesman said [the action of the bosses [might drain union funds, but jit also threatened the country’s stability.