Car workers strike

(First Edition)

About 54,500 metalworkers staged warning strikes yesterday across western Germany, union officials said, demanding pay raises that recession-rocked companies say would bring even more lay-offs, AP reports from Bonn. About 20,500 Audi and BMW workers put down their tools at the companies' main plants in Bavaria. Another 5,000 auto-workers staged a rally in the Baden-Wurttemberg city of Neckarsulm.