Overview

• IG Metall and the employers agreed to a 1.75% wage increase effective January 1, 2026, a €75 monthly boost for trainees, and a contract running through December 31, 2026.
• The pact extends safeguards on employment security, contractor use and phased retirement, and keeps options such as reducing weekly hours to 28 with partial pay compensation.
• The agreement is contingent on approval by IG Metall’s tariff commission and executive; the sector’s peace obligation expired at midnight and warning strikes had been readied.
• Roughly 70,000 workers in northwest German steel are covered; earlier union demands for a late‑2025 lump sum were dropped in the compromise.
• Ministers Lars Klingbeil and Katherina Reiche signaled work on a subsidised industrial power price with details to be settled with the EU, aiming to give firms clarity by early 2026 with reimbursements planned in the 2027 budget, while unions press for a 5‑cent per kWh cap.