New battleground over German industrial jobs – DW – 12/11/2024 | EUROtoday

“It breaks my heart! You can’t treat people this way. We’ve worked so hard for Thyssenkrupp,” stated Helmut Renk, the 62-year-old works council chairman of the steelmaker’s facility in Kreuztal-Eichen, Germany.

Venting his anger and frustration in regards to the plant’s doubtless closure, he provides that he is been working there for 40 years — similar to his father earlier than and his son now.

Renk’s exhausting emotions are at present shared by many staff of the German metal big, argues commerce union official Ulrike Hölter. Representing the central Ruhr Valley department of the IG Metall metalworkers’ union, Hölter says the steelworkers are particularly indignant with administration, and anxious about their very own future.

The imminent dismissal of the five hundred steelworkers in Kreuztal-Eichen, she is satisfied, won’t solely reverberate within the small city in western Germany, however can be felt all through your complete nation.

What is Thyssenkrupp planning?

In late November, Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe (TKSE), stated it might eradicate 11,000 jobs in complete — 5,000 of which might be axed by 2030 and one other 6,000 shed via spin-offs or divestitures. The job cuts quantity to about 40% of its complete German workforce of 27,000.

The Kreuztal-Eichen plant, which focuses on processing metal, is slated for full closure.

TKSE additionally introduced it’s going to scale back its general metal manufacturing capability from 11.5 million tons to simply below 9 million tons by divesting its stake in Hüttenwerke Krupp Mannesmann (HKM) in Duisburg, Germany.

Although if that sale just isn’t achievable, TKSE has stated it might maintain talks with different shareholders about closure situations. Additionally, a plant in Bochum is now set to close down by 2027 — three years sooner than beforehand deliberate.

“Urgent measures are required to improve Thyssenkrupp Steel’s own productivity and operating efficiency, and to achieve a competitive cost level,” the corporate stated in an announcement.

The aim is to cut back personnel prices by some 10% on common within the coming years.

Why is Thyssenkrupp struggling?

TKSE, which is the steelmaking unit of the Thyssenkrupp industrial conglomerate, is the most important metal producer in Germany. The firm faces growing overcapacity and intense competitors from cheaper metal imports from Asia. Additionally, Germany’s all-important automotive trade is struggling amid a transition to electrical autos, which has led to lowered demand for metal.

Moreover, the present authorities of Chancellor Olaf Scholz has tried the make metal manufacturing in Germany much less polluting, singling out TKSE as a landmark venture for the world’s first hydrogen-powered blast furnaces in Duisburg. However, it stays unclear if the billions in state subsidies for so-called inexperienced metal produced with out carbon emissions will ever repay.

Plus in August, a number of members of TKSE’s supervisory board resigned, accusing the management of failing to speculate adequately within the metal division to keep up its competitiveness.

Gerhard Bosch from the University of Duisburg-Essen additionally blames “insufficient investment” for a part of the disaster. “Thyssenkrupp Steel has quality and investment issues resulting from poor business decisions,” he informed DW.

In the throes of change

Gerhard Bosch, who’s a former member of Thyssenkrupp’s supervisory board, thinks the corporate’s disaster is more likely to spill over into numerous jobs past its personal workforce as each steelmaking job “typically supports at least one other job” alongside the provision chain in Germany.

The Ruhr Valley area was as soon as Germany’s industrial heartland with quite a few coal mines and metal mills centered across the cities of Duisburg and Essen. After the final coal mine closed in 2018, an period got here to an finish leaving deep scars and the area economically depressed.

Unemployment there’s nonetheless larger than in the remainder of Germany, says Gerhard Bosch, and the lack of the metal jobs “will hit Duisburg especially hard.”

But the German metal trade just isn’t the one industrial sector at present hit by large disruption. Many extra corporations are planning to slash jobs, together with automakers Volkswagen and Ford, and expertise big Bosch.

As Germany’s export-driven economic system is experiencing lowered demand for its merchandise on a world scale, it’s anticipated to shrink for the second consecutive 12 months, in keeping with quite a few forecasts.

Defiant labor unions vow to combat again

Meanwhile, German labor unions, particularly the highly effective IG Metall metalworkers’ union, are gearing up for a protracted battle to avoid wasting threatened jobs.

Frank Patzelt, a rolling-mill employee and union member at TKSE in Bochum, says that whereas some colleagues really feel hopeless, many are able to combat.

“If we stick together, we can push for a better outcome for ourselves,” he informed DW.

This article was initially written in German.