German rubber workers win pay, benefit hikes

BRUSSELS (Feb. 17)—Some 30,000 German rubber workers have won substantial pay and benefit increases in their latest collective bargaining agreement, according to the German IC BCE union, an affiliate of the Brussels-based International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers´ Unions. Workers will get a 2.9-percent pay hike in 2000-2001 in West Germany, 3.2 percent in East Germany, said Werner Bischoff, IC BCE´s chief of collective bargaining. Workers will be able to work half-time at age 55 while receiving at least 85 percent of their last full-time wages—95 percent if they´re on a three-shift roster—and a new union-employer employment promotion fund will allow workers to retire at age 60 with virtually the same pensions and benefits as if they waited till 65, the union said.