IG Metall: Railway renovation solely with “green” tracks? | EUROtoday

The appointments for the introduced metal and auto-summit with Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) haven’t but been decided. But the calls for of corporations and staff to politics are getting louder. The IG Metall union now requires a big foreclosures of the native trade to the competitors from overseas – above all to guard the metal producers.

“Industry is in crisis mode,” stated Jürgen Kerner, second chairman of IG Metall, at an occasion of the union in Berlin. 114,000 staff had been dismantled inside one 12 months. “Against this background, the question drives me: Can democracy survive without growth?”

Christiane Benner, the chairwoman of the union, discovered that the temper within the corporations had not modified because the new federal authorities took workplace. There was doubts about politics and the functioning of democracy. Instead of drastic breaks, the lack of worth creation and prosperity, you like to not experiment, stated Kerner. “People expect solutions.”

Fear of dumping metal from China and Russia

The options that the union needs embody prolonged protecting measures for the metal trade. There shall be strict import restrictions for metal to the EU by the center of subsequent 12 months. The dialogue about potential guidelines afterwards. The Federal Government now expects a “common appearance towards trade protection,” stated Kerner. “If we don’t get effective mechanisms against dumping steel from China, steel from Russia – which still exists – then we no longer have to discuss the other topics.” Then trade in Germany and Europe is misplaced. Companies corresponding to Thyssenkrupp Steel additionally push for greater tariffs and import charges.

Within the EU, the union strives for state necessities that desire native merchandise to imported, so -called native content material clauses. These guidelines may apply, for instance, to public development initiatives, or additionally within the auto trade, the place one may pressure Chinese producers like BYD to make use of equipped elements from Europe for his or her meeting works deliberate right here.

If the renovation of bridges or railway traces at the moment are financed from the Federal Government infrastructure property, such native content material could be helpful from the IG Metall’s standpoint. “We no longer have a single production for tracks in Germany. But with a ten-year package you could open up something like that and” produce inexperienced ‘tracks, “said Kerner with a view to the railway renovation. The railway could create its greatest sustainability investment for decades with CO₂-free steel.

There are signals from politics that such regulations could actually be introduced. The economist Jens Südekum, personal advisor to Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil (SPD), said that he “had no shy” in front of local content clauses: “As far as I do know, Chinese steelworks don’t pay in keeping with tariff.”

According to the General Director of the EU Commission for the Innenmarkt, Kerstin Jorna, the EU is already working on such rules. In public construction tenders, for example, one wants to reserve a certain proportion of the material used for products produced in Europe. The EU is in a pliers movement between the USA and China, said Jorna. “If you might be within the pliers, it’s a must to let your muscle tissue play.”

The IG Metall had already submitted a catalog of demands two weeks ago with the Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) two weeks ago. In the government coalition, however, one tries to screw down the expectations of the meeting. Officially, one speaks of an “autodialog”. Large subsidy packages like once at times of Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) are probably not to be expected. At that time, the “environmental bonus” for the purchase of e-cars had been decided at such a summit. Now industry and union hope for further help for electromobility in which the companies have already invested billions.

How long the unity with employers will last is not foreseeable. Kerner received applause from the 250 works councils present when he said that IG Metall had to “turn out to be extra conflicting once more” and the preservation of jobs had to put back in the foreground. In crisis situations, the union is always ready to compromise, he said later. “However, we’re at present experiencing employers who begin the disaster temper when the margin falls under ten p.c. If it’s mentioned that there should be dismantling and waiver – in our view, that is indecent.”

This article was for the world and the world and Business Insider created.

Daniel Zwick is an financial editor in Berlin and stories on the world about financial and power coverage, digitization and state modernization.