Protests against job cuts at Siemens in Munich

Last week the electronic group Siemens announced about 2,000 job cuts nationwide of more than 9,000 jobs at the IT division SIS, reports Die Sueddeutsche.

How many of the 3,500 employees it affects in Munich is unclear - some 800 of them are now gathered on Monday afternoon outside the factory gates to protest against the decision, armed with whistles, warning strike-vests, and badges labeled "SIS belongs to Siemens."

"The atmosphere in our department is half a meter below the low point," complains Thomas Graumann, working for ten years at Siemens. "We have known since October that we will be outsourced. When we had been informed on Thursday about the level of reductions, we were more than shocked." The poor information flow annoyed many employees: "Nobody tells us anything," Graumann said, "Instead, we hear the same old vague phrases." According to rumors in Perlach along 900 jobs are at risk.

"Hopefully there will be more participants in industrial action," says software developer Andreas Nützel overlooking the coming weeks, where further protests are planned. "We definitely  want to keep as many jobs as possible" says the SIS staff. Meanwhile, the IG Metall union calls on workers to let them lead the negotiations with Siemens. "When fear turned into resistance - that is the only language understood by Siemens," said IG Metall trade union and SPD council Horst Lischka.