Note: The number of participants was corrected accordingly from 77,000 to 81,000.
Frankfurt am Main – The location of the industry in Germany is heading up, the concern for the workplace in the workforce grows. Against this background, industrial workers today asked politics to act and the employers to rethink in five cities. In total, more than 81,000 employees followed the call from IG Metall. The day of action under the motto “My workplace. Our industrial country. Our future! ” It was the union’s largest public action for decades.
Christiane Benner, first chairman of IG Metall in Hanover, said: “Today we are on the streets and squares because nothing works without us! Without industry, Germany is a poor country, we won’t allow that. We expect more from the employers. They dismantle, shorten, want to relocate and do not make any institutions, innovations or future. But we can do the future, we can do new technologies, we can green industry. And now we want to do that too! It is good that politics has shown that they understood. But no special fund has been decided yet, nothing is yet clear. All political forces must now take responsibility so that this central project does not fail. With our day of action, we set a clear sign of quick action, brave investments of politics and companies and above all: for our future! ”
With a view to the coalition negotiations that have already started and the planned special fund for investments, Jürgen Kerner, second chairman of IG Metall, said in Stuttgart: “Politicians have awakened, recognized the seriousness of the situation and has taken the right direction. Now it is important to continue to pursue this path to keep the pace high and to keep an eye on the goal: a strong industry that continues to ensure safe work and broad prosperity in Germany. ” Employers are also required: “The unproductive dismantling and shift fantasies must finally stop! We now need managers who are committed to the location, set up their company sustainably for the future and invest in a big throw. ”
The IG Metall campaign day took place this Saturday with simultaneous rallies in Hanover, Stuttgart, Cologne, Frankfurt and Leipzig. The occasion is the difficult situation of the industry, which, from the IG Metall’s point of view, was recently reinforced by the false recipes of employers and the hesitant actions of politics. So more and more jobs are in danger.
With the action day, IG Metall calls for more investments by politics and companies, an active industrial policy and targeted promotion of innovations and future technologies. According to IG Metall, a strong, future -oriented industry is of importance far beyond the industrial sector. It is a prerequisite for good, fairly paid jobs and prosperity in Germany as a whole.