Following the departure of three executives and four supervisory board members at thyssenkrupp Steel, German union IG Metall has proposed that two board seats be occupied by politicians.
“We call on the national government and the state government of North Rhine Westphalia [NRW] to claim two board seats,” IG Metall chairwoman Christiane Brenner said during a meeting of IG Metall’s leading committee on Monday. This move would be necessary to guarantee a transparent and fair balance of responsibilities between tk Steel and parent thyssenkrupp AG, the union says in a press release sent to Kallanish.
The union argues government has a right to such a claim on the basis of the €2 billion ($2.2 billion) of public funds granted as subsidies for the steelmaker’s technological transition. It points out that two seats have been given to Daniel Křetínský and his company, EPCG, for their acquisition of 20% in tk Steel.
Policymakers tried to intervene last week when they noticed how shattered the relationship between thyssenkrupp’s management boards was. NRW premier Hendrik Wüst and national economy minister Robert Habeck asked tk Steel’s supervisory board to postpone their meeting by a month to win time, but the situation then quickly deteriorated.
IG Metall has also asked tk AG chief executive Miguel Lopez and supervisory board chairman Siegfried Russwurm to return to sensible dialogue with workers’ representatives.
An ongoing internal dispute between shareholders’ representatives at tk AG and the boards of tk Steel ended in the departure of multiple Steel unit executives last Thursday (see Kallanish passim).
In a subsequent reaction on Friday, the union stated that the departure of experienced steel executives will set the company back significantly. “Thyssenkrupp Steel is in the thick of the possibly biggest crisis in its history,” it said. “The shareholders’ representatives at the AG need to ask themselves to what extent they contributed to that escalation.” It criticised the representatives for having driven away the steel executives in a “headless campaign”.
Also on Friday, Russwurm was heard firing back at tk Steel in a statement that was not widely distributed. Tk Steel’s management “did not succeed, in a matter of months and actually years, and despite respectable efforts, to find answers to the structural challenges,” he was quoted as saying by dpa.
Christian Koehl Germany
