Frankfurt – IG Metall is urgently calling on the federal government to provide the green restructuring of industry with more financial resources for the necessary industrial policy. Otherwise there is a risk of loss of added value and thousands of jobs. The reason for the appeal is the current budget week, during which the budget of the Federal Ministry of Economics will be negotiated this Friday.
“It is our understanding of the transformation that the state supports companies and employees through an active industrial policy in leading the business models of the long-successful German industry into a decarbonized future,” write Christiane Benner and Jürgen Kerner, the first and second chairmen from IG Metall, in a letter to the budget policy spokespersons of the traffic light factions. Many companies have embarked on this path together with their employees. “It would be tantamount to a betrayal of those pioneers to knowingly put themselves in the shackles of stewardship and thereby jeopardize the social-ecological transformation. We urgently need reliable commitments and long-term planning security.”
The two chairmen particularly criticize the emerging insufficient financial resources of the Climate and Transformation Fund (KTF). It is the central instrument for the mobility transition, for the energy and heating transition and for future-oriented climate-neutral industrial projects. “The success of the transformation depends largely on the legislature signaling through reliable and sufficient resources for the KTF that it will continue to support the transformative change with all determination – especially in the current stagnating economic environment,” the letter says. “The current plans, on the other hand, give rise to fears that the KTF will be degraded to an obsolete model – and thus also sow doubts about the legislature’s self-image in terms of transformation policy.”
From IG Metall’s perspective, the transformation of the industry is in danger of failing – with unforeseeable consequences. Christiane Benner warns: “Fear and uncertainty are spreading among the workforce and flowing from there into families, circles of friends and clubs. This is poison for our society. No debt brake, no black zero is worth letting our economy go to the dogs and endangering social cohesion. Germany can do so much, and our position remains clear. Climate protection and industrial strength can go hand in hand. Politicians must act now and provide planning security.”