SOME GERMAN ENGINEERS AGAIN HOLD WARNING STRIKES
The engineers union IG Metall said
35,700 workers at 152 West German engineering companies held
brief warning strikes today in support of the union's demands
for higher wages and shorter working hours without loss of pay.
    It said most of the stoppages were in northern Germany,
where employers and union representatives met for talks on a
collective wage agreement for 300,000 engineering workers in
the Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony areas.
    IG Metall members began a series of nationwide warning
strikes this week as part of the union's bid to raise wages by
five pct and cut the working week to 35 hours from 38.5 hours.
    Warning strikes held so far this week have generally lasted
about one hour each.
    Employers in northern German offered IG Metall a 2.7 pct
rise in wages from April 1 and a further 1.5 pct from July next
year. It also offered to cut the working week by half an hour
from July 1988.
    IG Metall rejected the offer, and further talks for
northern Germany were later scheduled for March 23.
    On Monday employers in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia
offered workers there a similar package of wage rises and
shorter working hours.
 REUTER
