Munich - Tens of thousands of workers in Germany's engineering sector were expected to walk off their jobs Monday as their union expanded its warning strikes to press its demands for an 8-per-cent pay raise.

The strikes, which began Saturday, are to continue through Friday after the IG Metall union rejected an offer of 2.1-per-cent more income in 2009 and 0.8 per cent of annual salaries for the months of November and December

The union called it a "provocation" that the 3.6 million employees in the industry have not been offered raises to compensate for inflation.

Metal workers across Germany are to take part in the temporary strikes Monday. "We are expecting tens of thousands of participants," a union spokeswoman said in Frankfurt.

Hundreds of companies are to be affected, especially in the states of Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Thuringia and Saarland, where
30,000 workers were called to strike.

Thousands more metal workers were also expected to stop work in Baden-Wuerttemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia.

Negotiators from both sides are to meet again November 11 for a fourth round of talks. If there is no breakthrough by mid-November, the union can declare the talks a failure and have its members vote on an indefinite strike.

The strikes come at a time when carmakers such as Daimler AG, Opel and BMW have announced temporary closures of factories to save costs after a drop in orders triggered by the global credit crisis.

Martin Kannegiesser, president of the engineering employers group Gesamtmetall, warned in an interview with the Welt am Sonntag newspaper that the strikes would hurt not only the companies involved but also ultimately their workers.

Early Monday, about 50 workers at BSH Bosch and Siemens Household Appliances GmbH in Dillingen in the southern state of Bavaria and 100 at the auto-parts maker Valeo SA in Wemding near Ingolstadt, also in Bavaria, walked off their jobs temporarily at midnight, union officials said.

Auto-parts maker Helag-Electonic GmbH in Nagold in the south-western state of Baden-Wuerttemberg were not reporting for the early shift. About 200 workers on the early and normal shifts were called to strike.

Employees at the saw maker Stihl Inc were also to lay down their work in Waiblingen near Stuttgart in the same state. (dpa)