"On September 6th, the Bosch-Siemens Household Appliances Ltd. (BSH) staff convened in an employees meeting that was going to last until September 22nd 2006 - a unique length of time for such a meeting in Germany.
Previously, BSH had announced that it was going to shut down the Berlin factory at the end of 2006.
The employees meeting is the start of series of actions that continued until the end of October, and which echoed not only in Berlin.
Employees squat the factory gates when the management tries to remove equipment from the site. They go on a "March of Solidarity" to visit other factories, including their "competitors" at Miele and AEG and call for a joint rally in front of Siemens' headquarters in Munich.
On September 19th the metal union members of the staff vote with more than 94 % for official strike in the pre-strike ballot.
At this climax of mobilisation, the union IG Metall negotiates a compromise with the company behind closed doors: "Withdrawal of the closure order and preservation of 400 jobs (previously of about 600) until 2010; an annual salary cut of 20 per cent; no new investments into production." On October 20th a ballot is held on the negotiation outcome. Merely 35 per cent of the staff votes for this compromise. Thus, according to the IG Metall statutes, the negotiation outcome is accepted and the strike called off." (quoted from Holger Wegemann)