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29 June, 2009
Germany’s two biggest industrial unions, ICEM affiliate IGBCE and IG Metall, urgently called upon elected officials and employers within Germany to begin a constructive dialogue on overcoming the consequences of the current global crisis. The unions recently issued a joint statement to draw attention to the fact that economic and industrial policy challenges cannot be undertaken with mere "cosmetic adjustments without a genuine substance."
In cooperation with the Hans Böckler Foundation, IGBCE and IG Metall organised a joint conference in Oberhausen, Germany, entitled “Industrial Policy for Tomorrow.”
“The industrial base of our economy must be strengthened to lay the foundations of sustained growth and prosperity,” said IGBCE board member Michael Vassiliadis.
Added Berthold Huber, President of IG Metall, “We need a bridge over the crisis and it must lead to the other shore and not back to the same shore. We must now have a model for a sustainable industrial policy.”
In the joint statement, the unions warn of the danger that industrial cores could be lost and entire value-chains in industrial processes might collapse. Therefore, the unions call on the German government to provide “short term loans and guarantees, and to generate additional demand.”
Specifically, IGBCE and IG Metall call for a public equity fund, effective protections for companies to secure jobs, the adoption of a sustainable industrial policy that would replace unregulated markets, comprehensive social-democratic participation rights, decent work, regulated labour markets, and a coordinated industrial policy for all of Europe.