Employee representatives hope for further negotiations after a group-wide virtual works meeting.
The interrupted negotiations between employee representatives and management at the truck manufacturer MAN, where 9,500 jobs are shaky in Germany and Austria, could be continued “one floor higher”, namely with the management of the mother Traton.
This was reported by the works council head of the Steyr site threatened with closure, Erich Schwarz, to the APA after a group-wide works meeting on Friday.
Negotiations suspended
The group works council suspended negotiations with MAN management last week. He demands the joint development of a concept – without plant closings – with the company management.
In a virtual company meeting on Friday, the employees were informed about this and about possible further steps. It was possible for all employees to be there via live stream, said Schwarz, and the transmission could also be followed on monitors in the production halls.
The chairman of the general works council made it clear at the meeting that the closure of three locations and the relocation of jobs to cheap foreign countries would not be supported, Schwarz reported to the APA. The works council and union would do everything in their power to prevent this. The site in Steyr with 2,300 employees is also threatened with closure. The management signaled on Friday that they wanted to “go a common path” and were ready to talk, Schwarz was cautiously optimistic.
Group mothers
At the works meeting, the employee representatives also announced that the negotiations would be continued, albeit “one floor higher,” said Schwarz – so instead of talking to the MAN management, they wanted to speak to the Traton's mother. Today, Friday, there is a Supervisory Board meeting at Traton SE, after which he expects negotiations with the employee side. As a final escalation step, the discussions could then be shifted to the VW board level.
As far as the location contracts already terminated by the management in Steyr are concerned, there is an expertise available, according to which these are enforceable, reported Schwarz.
If nothing changes by the end of the year, we will take action here. The goal is still an agreement at the green table, because there are usually “two winners”, so Schwarz. The decision on possible trade union measures that has already been taken is also available as leverage.
Similar to MAN works council chairman Saki Stimoniaris, Schwarz also welcomed the German government's scrapping bonus for trucks as good for the industry. He said fewer people would probably be unemployed.
However, it will probably not have any impact on the Steyr site, because the lower-emission trucks that are then increasingly being sold can also be produced in Poland.
