M a hundred employees of the automotive supplier Neue Halberg Guss have demonstrated on Thursday morning in Frankfurt for a social wage agreement and against the owner of their company, the Prevent Group. About 10.30 o’clock put a train of according to trade union data about 700 humans direction Opernplatz in motion. There, the management, employee representatives and trade union delegates negotiate this Thursday IG metal about whether it still comes to a social wage agreement for the business in need. Employees demand severance pay in the event that it comes to the job cuts that her employer has announced.
Before the demonstration began to move from the main station to the Opernplatz in Frankfurt, the employees gave themselves a fierce fight. Anyone who willfully put jobs on the line must be punished with paying severance pay, said an IG Metall representative. However, a social wage agreement is only the second best solution after receiving as many jobs as possible.
For a month in the permanent strike
The employers’ side and the employee representatives are fighting for a social wage agreement for the Neue Halberg Guss, because the producer of engine blocks and crankshafts is in economic distress. The reason: The largest customer, the Volkswagen Group from Wolfsburg, has reduced its purchase volume. In response, the company had its prices for Volkswagen increased tenfold from one day to the next. Nevertheless, the owner of the Neue Halberg Guss, the Prevent Group, had announced that they would close the plant in Leipzig at the end of next year. Of these, 700 out of the 2,200 jobs would be affected. At the parent plant in Saarbrücken, the company plans to cut 300 out of 1,500 jobs due to the lack of orders.
In order to protect employees who are being dismissed, the works council and trade union want to reach a social bargaining agreement. They demand a further qualification company and severance pay. The employees of the Neue Halberg Guss have therefore been on permanent strike for about a month, and since then production has been shut down in the company that has belonged to the Bosnian-German entrepreneurial family Hastor since the turn of the year. She had gained notoriety two years ago, after she had come up with the Volkswagen Group a dispute over the continuation of cooperation. At that time it was about the Saxon suppliers ES automotive casting and Cartrim, which suspended deliveries in the course of the dispute, whereby Volkswagen was forced to temporarily stop the production.
The future of the company completely open
In the Neue Halberg Guss even more jobs could be eliminated than the previously mentioned around 1000 jobs. On Wednesday, there were concerns that more customers could turn away from the supplier. According to reports, several customers are considering withdrawing tools from the Neue Halberg casting. In the supplier industry, it is sometimes customary for the client to co-finance special machines or utensils for the contractor or make them available at the same time. If the customers actually retrieve the tools from Saarbrücken and Leipzig, this would hit the company hard.
The negotiations on the social wage agreement should begin late Thursday morning. Whether it comes to a solution is, according to union information but open. It is completely unclear how it will continue with the New Halberg casting, it was said on Thursday.