Frankfurt am Main – The board of IG Metall has spoken out in favor of a day of action per bridge electricity price. On November 24th, thousands of employees will hold public demonstrations at various locations nationwide to demand temporary relief from electricity prices for energy-intensive industries. IG Metall is convinced that there is no other way to prevent job cuts and site closures in the long term. At its first meeting, the newly elected board of IG Metall rated the electricity price package that the traffic light parties recently agreed on as inadequate.
Relief effect is marginal
“It is good that the federal government is moving on the issue of electricity prices. However, the planned measures fall far short and do not solve the particular problems of energy-intensive industries that face international competition. The relief effect for these companies is marginal,” said Jürgen Kerner, second chairman of IG Metall, after the board meeting. “The traffic light parties must make targeted improvements to their package, otherwise we have to expect that the first companies will announce concrete relocation plans as early as spring.”
Energy price shock caused by war in Ukraine continues
Electricity prices in this country have multiplied due to the energy crisis in the wake of the Russian war of aggression and are still far from normalizing to this day. The industrial electricity price in Germany is still around twice as high today as it was in 2021. Energy-intensive sectors such as steel. This hits the aluminum, foundry and forging industries, but also the chemical and cement industries particularly hard and in two ways: Due to their specific production processes, the energy requirement is high and the production costs are therefore expensive. At the same time, the companies are in international competition with countries where electricity is needed is available significantly cheaper.
IG Metall warns of a domino effect
IG Metall therefore believes that targeted support for the affected companies is essential until sufficient cheap electricity from renewable sources is available in a few years. When calling for a temporary cap of 5 cents per kilowatt hour, the union is primarily focusing on the directly endangered jobs in the affected sectors, but also warns of a domino effect: “The basic industries are the basis for our industrial model. If we lose this, further industrial sectors will disappear from Germany in the long term,” warns Kerner. “The cap for selected energy-intensive companies benefits the entire industrial location.”
Funding not for free
It is essential to IG Metall’s concept that the price cap is linked to conditions. “The bridge electricity price must not be free,” says Kerner. “Only companies with collective bargaining agreements, location and job security, and investments in transformation are allowed to benefit. For us it is not simply about preserving old industries, but rather about enabling the transformation towards climate-neutral production in Germany. So that the jobs of the future can also be created in this country.”