2023-10-24 18:27:34
Economy Trade Union Day in Frankfurt
Chants against Scholz, cheers for Habeck – and a coup for the IG Metall boss
Status: 24.10.2023 | Reading time: 4 minutes
Scholz promises a solution for energy-intensive industries
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has promised IG Metall a solution for energy-intensive industries. The federal government will ensure that no company has to close because of high energy prices, he said at the IG Metall union conference in Frankfurt.
The leaders of the industrial unions are usually close to the SPD. But with his hesitation about the industrial electricity price, Chancellor Scholz is turning the base of IG Metall and Co. against him. However, there was sympathy for the ideas of Economics Minister Robert Habeck.
It’s the elephant in the room. For the unions in Germany it is clear: energy-intensive companies need the industrial electricity price. Otherwise there is a risk of emigration and job cuts.
On this issue, even the employers’ association Gesamtmetall is in line with IG Metall, which is rarely the case. Only two decision-makers, it seems on Tuesday at the trade union conference in the Frankfurt trade fair, still have concerns: Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP).
The Chancellor has been hesitating on the question of the “bridge” for months. And while the traffic light can neither agree on an approval nor a rejection, Scholz’s stance is alienating many at the union base.
More about the industry
“Central Achilles heel”
From his point of view, there are good reasons: Economists warn that the expensive subsidies will lead to financing getting out of control. Lindner, in turn, repeatedly warned of the supposed injustice if large steel companies received cheap electricity, but not “the baker around the corner”.
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“When it comes to industrial electricity prices, the Ministry of Economic Affairs remains the only proposal,” says an analysis by the German Economic Institute (IW) on Tuesday. “Even after months, the government cannot agree on a common approach.” The debate about the industrial electricity price, it seems, has become deadlocked.
The new IG Metall boss Christiane Benner as well as DGB boss Yasmin Fahimi and Michael Vassiliadis, chairman of the IG Mining, Chemicals and Energy, therefore announced resistance. All three have a red party register. Benner received “dear Olaf” in a friendly manner on Tuesday – but then made it clear: “Our expectation is that we will get a statement from you: When will we get the bridge electricity price?”
“Electricity prices should be affordable,” says Scholz
But it was precisely on this point that Scholz remained vague in his speech, emphasizing above all the successes in the expansion of renewables and the mistakes of the past. “The price of electricity should be affordable and that will also be possible with renewable energies,” said Scholz. “It will be a combination of many individual measures.” However, the desired commitment to the industrial electricity price did not materialize.
Many of the delegates only acknowledged the Chancellor’s speech with cautious clapping. In complete contrast to Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens), who spoke on Monday and received frenzied applause on several occasions.
The chilly mood was also expressed in the trade unionists’ messages to the Chancellor: some of the delegates from the crowd held up posters with the inscription “Refugees Welcome” in the air – probably a reaction to the Chancellor’s announcement that he wanted to deport rejected asylum seekers more consistently in the future .
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From another corner, several IG Metall members held up a banner demanding “bridge electricity price now”. And after almost a quarter of an hour, the Chancellor’s speech was briefly drowned out by chants.
At the end of Scholz’s visit, the new IG Metall boss Benner even managed a small coup. For a spontaneous group photo, she and Scholz positioned themselves directly in front of the “Bridge Electricity Price Now” banner. The Chancellor endured this and smiled into the cameras in front of the demand that he had recently cleared.
Chancellor Scholz in front of the IG Metall banner with the inscription: “Bridge electricity price now”
Source: dpa/Arne Dedert
A stark contrast to Habeck’s appearance the day before. The Vice Chancellor gratefully addressed the demand for the industrial electricity price in his speech – after all, he has been demanding it for months. This is not the only point on which the IG Metall leadership is remarkably close to the Vice Chancellor.
Even when it comes to transformation, Benner’s ideas coincide surprisingly well with Habeck’s: “Not everything stays the way it is today. Jobs and businesses are changing,” she said. “Mathematically speaking, the change is going well. There would be enough jobs in the green industry. But instead of taking advantage of these opportunities, many employers made it easy for themselves and relocated jobs abroad.”
Not surprisingly: Benner sees Finance Minister Lindner’s course as a brake. “He turns his trouser pockets inside out and says: Look – there’s nothing there,” she shouted to the delegates. “Nobody has anything to do with keeping their pockets.” The debt brake should be suspended “in these special times” and the state must invest more in “the future and industry”.
Benner wants to demand more from the “very rich”.
It is also clear to the union where the additional funds in the budget should come from. “Strong shoulders have to carry more,” says Benner. IG Metall has developed several concepts for tax reforms. “We don’t want to take anything away from anyone,” said Benner, only to then add: “More must be demanded” from the “very rich” in society.
However, it will hardly be possible to implement this plan with the FDP’s participation in government. The Liberals are categorically ruling out further tax increases.
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