It appears that the 170,000 metal industry workers in Austria are preparing to take strike action over pay issues, with union officials stating that they will be holding summits at the beginning of next week to decide upon a course of action.

Strikes are considered one of the most prominent possible measures, with the threat coming after staff’s chief negotiator Rainer Wimmer upset employers’ representative Christoph Hinteregger by very vocally calling for workers in the Austrian metal industry to be given a 5.5% pay rise.

Hinteregger claimed to have been “affected and surprised” by the public call and he has since criticised Wimmer for holding a press conference to make the announcement. He claims that discussions should have continued behind closed doors and he argues that many of the smaller companies in the industry would not be able to cope with such a rise.

Wimmer shot back however, claiming that he is “sick of hearing the same points of view over and over again.”

Wimmer, who acts as the boss for the PRO-GE Union explained “The industry keeps telling us ahead of possible crises that the economic outlook would not allow higher salaries. It says that no increases are possible during economic downturns and claims higher wages are out of reach after a crisis as the sector must recover.

“We found out that metal industry firms paid 90 per cent of their profits of the past three years to shareholders and owners while staff were asked for modesty because of the volatile outlook. They were told that the strength of Austria as a business location would be at risk if wages were upped significantly.”