Mercedes-Benz Workers Rally as Board Postpones Bonus, Seeks More Output for Same Pay
Published on 07/01/2026 at 17:48 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
Roughly 90,000 of the 108,000 employees at Mercedes-Benz face a delayed special payment, igniting protests coordinated by the IG Metall union across multiple German sites. The so-called “Transformationsbaustein” – a bonus equal to 18.4 percent of one month’s pay – was scheduled for July but is now being pushed to 2027 by management.
The company’s leadership is also demanding higher productivity from the workforce without any wage increase. The stated rationale: costs must fall sharply to keep the Stuttgart-based automaker competitive.
The protest action, launched on Wednesday, targets a cost-cutting drive labeled “Next Level Performance,” which began in 2025. The urgency behind the program became clearer after full-year results showed profit tumbled from €10.4 billion to €5.3 billion in 2025 – a 49 percent slide. The first quarter of 2026 continued that trend, with operating profit dropping 17.2 percent compared to the same period a year earlier. The board has described the situation as “dramatic,” arguing that a deep restructuring of cost structures is unavoidable.
IG Metall and the works council chairs, Ergun Lümali and Michael Häberle, sharply criticized the move. In their view, the board is offloading the financial burden exclusively onto the workforce. They called the measures unimaginative and a wrong signal for morale.
Coordinated rallies are planned for Friday at ten locations: the main plants in Sindelfingen and UntertĂĽrkheim, as well as Rastatt, Kuppenheim, Bremen, Berlin, Hamburg, DĂĽsseldorf, Ludwigsfelde, and Germersheim. A digital assembly will also allow mobile and remote workers to participate.
The unions’ demands include preserving social standards, protecting jobs, upholding the 35-hour workweek, honoring contractual bonuses, and maintaining existing site guarantees.
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