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A warning strike was held at the press, polishing, and assembly plant of the Mercedes factory in Kecskemét (central Hungary) on Wednesday between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m., since the MBMH Vasas labor union failed to reach an agreement with management during the wage negotiations that have been going on since October.
Kitti Kovács-Besenyi, vice-president of the strike committee, told MTI after the strike that their labor union had met with representatives of the employers at Mercedes-Benz Manufacturing Hungary Kft. fourteen times since October, but failed to reach an agreement on this year’s wages. She could not comment on the management’s offer, but she did say that the basic wage improvement plan for the smaller wage categories is less than HUF 20,000 (EUR 50.45).
The vice-president noted that
the workers’ patience had run out, which is why the strike committee was formed on February 26, with the majority of workers agreeing to its demands.
The demands include:
Kovács-Besenyi said that their grassroots union has nearly 1,300 members, and a smaller number of about 100 people stopped or slowed down production in three areas of the factory on Wednesday afternoon. The vice-president stressed that
the point was to hold a warning strike and not to cause damage or a loss of production.”
The striking workers from the three departments gathered in one place for the duration of the walkout, discussed their demands, and then returned to their plants after the two hours were up and resumed work. The vice-president noted that the two-hour strike was considered a success, but that it had not been without incident, which would be investigated.
After their initiative, they are still waiting for a new offer from the employer and a proposal for the next negotiation date. She said that the company is currently arguing that with the expansion of the factory, such a high wage increase is not justified in the current economic situation. Following the formation of the strike committee, the company’s management announced that based on the results of the closed year 2023, it has decided to grant a gross profit-sharing payment of HUF 1,090,000 (EUR 2,745) to active employees of the Mercedes-Benz plant in Kecskemét. This one-off amount will be paid together with the March salary at the beginning of April.
According to Kovács-Besenyi,
the profit-sharing payment was a well-timed announcement by management, but this is due to the fact that it was included in the demands of the MBMH Vasas Union during the 2022 wage agreements, so it is the result of years of work by the union.
She stressed that Hungary is the only site in the group, outside of Germany, where this has been introduced and is now automatically paid to staff every year if workers receive it in Germany, too. The vice-president of the strike committee emphasized that if a new offer is not made by management, they will try to “break the deadlock in negotiations” by calling a larger strike covering the whole factory.
Via MTI, Featured image: Facebook/Mercedes-Benz Gyár Kecskemét