The industrial group Thyssenkrupp is in crisis, is cutting jobs and is looking for buyers and investors for important parts of the company. In the midst of these upheavals, an open battle is now starting between management and the IG Metall union. In a two-page statement on Monday, the board of the Essen-based MDax company contradicted employee representatives’ allegations that they had been ignored when Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský joined the steel division. “This was never the case and is not intended to be the case in the future,” it says.
IG Metall, on the other hand, complained in a leaflet that Thyssenkrupp boss Miguel López had “once again bypassed the employee representatives and thus deliberately offended them”. General works council boss Tekin Nasikkol called this a “calculated declaration of war”. López announced on Friday that the negotiations with Křetínský, which had been going on for months, had produced a result. Accordingly, Křetínský’s holding EPCG will initially take over 20 percent of the shares in Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe, the group’s struggling steel subsidiary. The Czechs will later increase their shares so that Thyssenkrupp and EPCG each hold 50 percent of the company.
IG Metall complained that it had only found out about this agreement a few hours before the public. However, the response from the Thyssenkrupp board now states that the management had clearly signaled to the employee representatives last week that the negotiations were well advanced: “The surprise at the results that were achieved last Friday probably stems from the things mentioned reasons have been kept within limits.”
More than 10,000 employees protest
This Tuesday, more than 10,000 employees are expected at a rally in front of the steel subsidiary’s Duisburg headquarters. Federal and state labor ministers Hubertus Heil and Karl-Josef Laumann will also speak. Originally, IG Metall wanted to hold a non-public works meeting. And the topic should not be Křetínský’s entry, but rather the management’s plan to reduce the capacity of the Duisburg steelworks. Because that will cost jobs. After Friday’s announcement, the union changed the nature of the meeting – instead of internal information, protest was now announced.