Germany's chemicals and pharmaceuticals sector kicked off the new pay and conditions round with talks in Frankenthal for the Rhineland-Palatinate region on Monday.
The Rhineland-Palatinate round forms the start of negotiations across nine regions in Germany, with the IG BCE putting forward a demand for a 7% increase for around 68,500 workers in the region.
The first round of talks at federal level is set for Thuringia on May 14 and 15. A total of 585,000 workers are employed in the sector in Germany.
Chief negotiator for the employers in Rhineland-Palatinate, Hendrik Müller, said on Monday: "The sector is experiencing its worst structural crisis in decades. We have to give the highest priority to protecting the chemicals industry and to securing jobs in this way."
IG BCE chief negotiator Roland Strasser rejected the notion of a zero round, or pay freeze. "The status of the sector is much more varied than the employers make it out to be," he said in a statement.
While the situation was difficult in the energy-intensive parts of the sector, consumer goods and pharmaceuticals were in much better shape. Few companies were currently making use of flexibility clauses in the current agreement, Strasser noted. "Existential crisis looks different."
Soaring prices for natural gas, caused in part by the shutdown in Russian supplies, have created difficult trading conditions for parts of the German chemicals sector.