A strike by Hungarian autoworkers has inspired Czech unions to begin organizing for a similar push. Jaroslav Povšík, head of the Škoda union, says workers at Czech plants should aim high when demanding better compensation for their work. “We’d like to achieve the highest growth in Czechia,” he told the daily Lidové noviny, with reference to the Hungarian strike at an Audi engine plant in Gyor that ended with workers there taking home an 18 percent pay increase. That worked out to an extra CZK 6,000 per month for them. The strike led to production delays and plant closures last week elsewhere in the VW supply chain. VW was hit by a similar strike in the summer of 2017 in Bratislava. Lidové noviny notes that the higher wage demand come at the same time as falling sales and the implementation of stricter emissions controls by the EU.
