2023-08-18 16:01:31
Necessity welds together: The trade unions have founded an “Alliance for Bridge Electricity Prices” together with industry associations. Together, the employee and company representatives want to increase the pressure on Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) to help energy-intensive companies to get cheaper electricity, at least temporarily.
The alliance now made its first serve with a drastically worded letter to all German prime ministers and the federal government. “Locations and entire regions are endangered. Dependencies that have proven to be disadvantageous for the German economy are increasing,” the letter says: “Relocations, site closures and mass layoffs are imminent.”
The letter was signed by Yasmin Fahimi, chairwoman of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) and the heads of the individual trade unions IG Metall and IG Bergbau, Chemie, Energie. The President of the Association of the Chemical Industry, Markus Steilemann, as well as the Presidents of the trade associations of the steel industry, the Metal Trade Association, the paper and glass industry and the Federal Association of Building Materials – Stone and Earth signed as co-authors.
More about German industry
Surprising special effect Energy policy reform
Out of concern about the beginning of de-industrialization in Germany, Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) had already proposed weeks ago to grant a “bridging electricity price” until 2030 to those sectors that are particularly hard hit by energy prices. With tax money, the electricity price for 80 percent of consumption should be subsidized down to six cents per kilowatt hour.
Bridge electricity price would trigger “debt-financed flash in the pan”, says Scholz
Chancellor Scholz himself had already promised an industrial electricity price of just four cents during the federal election campaign. This would make German industry internationally competitive again.
also read
But now Scholz doesn’t want to know anything about it anymore. “We cannot afford a permanent subsidy of electricity prices with the watering can and will therefore not give it either,” he said on Wednesday before the NRW Entrepreneur Day in Düsseldorf. He had previously said in the ZDF summer interview that a bridge electricity price would only trigger a “debt-financed flash in the pan”. In contrast to Scholz, SPD leader Saskia Esken supports the demand for an industrial electricity price.
also read
The pressure on Scholz is now increasing as a result of the alliance between business associations and the unions. “In our sectors – almost all of them with particularly high energy requirements – there is a blaze of fire,” warned Michael Vassiliadis, head of IG BCE in Berlin: “On the one hand, there is the weak economy, which is causing austerity programs, hiring freezes, even downsizing and investment brakes in companies .”
That alone would be bearable, said Vassiliadis. “But something about this recession is different. It affects central branches of industry that have been struggling with difficult local conditions in Germany for years: delayed energy transition, excessive energy prices, excessive regulation, ailing infrastructure, a lack of digitization in public administration.”
Expansion is taking place elsewhere – for example in the USA or China – the trade unionist warned: “These countries, of all countries, attract German investors not only with government subsidies and low energy prices, but also with all-round carefree packages for industrial settlements.”
“Therefore, a dangerous trend is spreading, especially in international corporations – regardless of whether they are based in Germany or elsewhere: When costs have to be cut and capacities have to be reduced, ‘Germany first!’ applies more and more frequently,” Vassiliadis stated.
2.4 million jobs, 240 billion euros added value
The IG BCE and its works councils are currently “negotiating in umpteen companies about making the cuts socially acceptable,” Vassiliadis continued. It’s not just about well-known names like BASF, Lanxess, Goodyear or Villeroy & Boch: There are “many individual cases that rarely make it beyond the local media and certainly not here in Berlin. But they add up – and are therefore no less critical,” says the union boss: “The cocktail of bad ingredients that have mixed there is too toxic.”
In the letter co-authored by Vassiliadis, the electricity price alliance reminds politicians that, according to studies, around 2.4 million jobs and a good 240 billion euros in added value are directly or indirectly dependent on the energy-intensive sectors. These secured the federal, state and local governments around 90 billion euros in tax payments and social security contributions every year. “The bridge electricity price costs money in the short term,” the letter says: “The loss of energy-intensive industries in the coming years would be much more expensive for the state, the social security systems, all of us.”
also read
To make matters worse, there is now a threat of the abolition of relief instruments, such as the energy and electricity tax peak equalization, criticize unions and associations: This could “suddenly mean that the companies concerned would have to pay ten times the electricity tax,” the letter says: “A 1.5 billion euro “nail in the coffin” for energy-intensive industry!”
The aluminum industry also sounded the alarm on Friday: production fell again by a double-digit percentage in the second quarter. “The exodus of the industry has already begun,” said association president Rob van Gils. “Time is of the essence and when large parts of the industry are gone, they won’t come back.”
This is where you will find third-party content
In order to display embedded content, your revocable consent to the transmission and processing of personal data is required, since the providers of the embedded content as third-party providers require this consent [In diesem Zusammenhang können auch Nutzungsprofile (u.a. auf Basis von Cookie-IDs) gebildet und angereichert werden, auch außerhalb des EWR]. By setting the switch to “on”, you agree to this (which can be revoked at any time). This also includes your consent to the transfer of certain personal data to third countries, including the USA, in accordance with Art. 49 (1) (a) GDPR. You can find more information about this. You can withdraw your consent at any time via the switch and via privacy at the bottom of the page.
#Electricity #price #burning #brightly #alliance #puts #Scholz #pressure