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12 February, 2007
The future of the German hard-coal industry was given new life early in February. Shaped by a combination of hard bargaining by German Union IGBCE in a top-level national summit and a timely demonstration in Düsseldorf by 10,000 miners, a workable plan was achieved to preserve the industry until at least 2018, and possibly beyond.
The summit was necessary after some federal politicians, as well as politicians from the coal-producing regions of Saarland and North Rhine-Westphalia proposed eliminating coal subsidies as German coal and industrial enterprise RAG becomes a publicly-traded company.
IGBCE President Hubertus Schmoldt
“Our central tenets have been fulfilled,” declared IGBCE President Hubertus Schmoldt. “Social compatibility, a legal financing mechanism until 2018, and keeping a future door open beyond that.” Revenues gained from RAG’s stock offering will be placed in a non-profit foundation for that purpose.
“We negotiated hard and at a crucial moment, our ability to mobilise materialised,” said Schmoldt. He was referring to the 10,000 miners who left their workplaces on 1 February and protested in front of the state parliament building in Düsseldorf. Miners were demonstrating against North Rhine-Westphalia Prime Minister Jürgen Rüttgers’ proposal at the summit to stop all coal subsidies by 2014. IGBCE and mining industry works councils organised the protest.
Schmoldt said it was that demonstration which blocked the Rüttgers plan.
Now the Germany Bundestag will draft a hard-coal financing plan from the results of the summit. Coal industry aid will begin in 2009 from the newly-created foundation. The IGBCE and German mineworkers are pleased with several major features produced by the recent coal summit, and with one in particular: that in 2012, a full review of the coal industry will occur in order to sustain it beyond 2018.