Thousands of workers at the engineering giant Siemens have staged rallies throughout Germany in protest against the threat of jobs moving abroad. "Staff have been told to work 40 hours instead of 35 a week for the same pay or else production will go elsewhere," a union official told BBC News Online.
Hartwig Oertel of IG Metall said staff walked out of their factories on Friday and held rallies for an hour or so.
He said Siemens may move plants to Eastern Europe where costs are lower.
Staff 'understand'
More than 400 employees staged a protest at a Siemens car plant in Karben, near Germany.
There were reportedly similar scenes in Nuremberg and Erlangen and other large cities.
But Siemens said it was confident an agreement with unions could be reached to stop the outsourcing of work.
"[The proposal to increase hours] is the solution to save jobs in Germany... a number of employees understand that," a representative said.
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