PORTO CARRAS, Greece, June 21 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder urged engineering unions and employers on Saturday to end a dispute over working hours in eastern Germany and not damage growth in the depressed region with more strikes.
"They should come up with a deal sooner rather than later," Schroeder said on the fringes of a summit of European Union leaders.
"Therefore I urge both sides to be reasonable and end this as soon as possible," Schroeder said, adding that the two sides had a responsibility for the overall economic growth in the former Communist eastern states.
The engineering union IG Metall said on Friday it wished to resume talks with employers by Wednesday to resolve a dispute over working hours and did not plan to extend strike action.
Some 11,000 workers downed tools in east Berlin, Brandenburg and Saxony on Thursday as IG Metall, Germany's biggest union, fights to cut the work week for east German engineering workers by three hours to match the west German standard of 35 hours.
The strikes have caused production bottlenecks at important auto suppliers in Brandenburg, Berlin and Saxony, and car makers Volkswagen and BMW warned they would be forced to halt production if the strikes continued.
The engineering employers' federation, Gesamtmetall, said on Friday it supported harmonising working hours in east and west Germany once the economic conditions were right.