Frankfurt, June 23: Germany luxury car maker BMW said today it had indefinitely laid off more than 10,000 workers due to supply disruptions caused by a three-week-old metalworking strike in eastern Germany. Production was halted from today at two major factories, in Munich and Regensburg, which assemble the new models of the company's 3-series.
BMW said last week that about 20,000 employees would be affected by the production stoppages at the two plants in the southern region of Bavaria. The BMW 3-series, launched in March in Europe, generates a significant portion of the company's revenues.
Volkswagen, Europe's biggest car maker, suspended production today at the VW plants in Dresden and Zwickau because of the strike, union sources said. German metal workers in the states of Saxony, Berlin and Brandenburg are on a strike called by the IG Metall Trade Union to push through their demands for a 35-hour week, in line with the wealthier western part of the country.
The roughly 319,000 engineering, electronics and metal industry workers in eastern Germany have been working a 38-hour week. Bureau Report