Apr 4, 2002 By Stephen Graham Associated Press Writer 2 min read

BERLIN (AP) – Thousands of electronics and auto workers held warning strikes across Germany on Wednesday, escalating a pay dispute that could disrupt a hoped-for economic recovery in an election year for Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. About 13,500 workers at more than 35 companies, including Siemens-Bosch and Linde, stopped work for one or two hours in the largest action since IG Metall began the work stoppages last week, union leaders said. Union and employer negotiators resume talks Monday, but the protests were to continue. IG Metall, Europe’s biggest industrial union, is seeking a 6.5 percent raise for this year for 3.6 million workers in key industries such as automaking, electronics and engineering.

Labor leaders say employers must improve an offer of two consecutive annual increases of 2 percent, or risk seeing the walkouts turn into Germany’s first full-scale pay strike in six years. They say workers must be compensated for better productivity and inflation, and accuse employers of reneging on pledges to create jobs in return for modest pay increases.

“Wage restraint doesn’t pay and doesn’t create any jobs,” IG Metall deputy leader Juergen Peters told workers protesting at a plant in Mainz. Giving workers more cash to spend would also boost the economy, he said.

Industry officials warn that a big raise would force a host of already struggling companies out of business. Schroeder, pushed hard by a conservative challenger ahead Sept. 22 elections, has urged the parties to avoid all-out strikes.

and work out a deal that doesn’t “trample the shoots of recovery.”

He already is under pressure over the economy because of chronic unemployment, which has risen to more than 10 percent this year. Conservative leader Edmund Stoiber has pledged to focus the election campaign on the economy.