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Frankfurt / Main (dpa) - IG Metall demands more participation and an end to the double voting rights for supervisory board chairmen in stock corporations.

In particular, when it comes to location decisions, it is not enough to act only according to the interests of the shareholders, said the head of the IG Metall district in the middle, Jörg Köhlinger, of the German press agency.

In times of strong public support for companies during the corona pandemic, all interest groups would have to be taken into account.

“It's about thousands of fates and the preservation of industrial jobs,” said the unionist on the case of the automotive supplier Continental, which wants to cut 13,000 jobs in Germany alone and instead want to close production plants in Aachen and the Hessian locations of Babenhausen and Karben.

The austerity program was decided in 2019 against the votes of the employee representatives and should now be carried out without compromises, said Köhlinger.

"But this man-in-the-house attitude is not enough to cope with the transformation of the automotive industry."

The double vote of the chairman, provided by the capital, comes into play if there is a stalemate in votes in a supervisory board with equal representation.

This ensures that the employer can always outvote the employees in case of doubt.

IG BCE has also spoken out in favor of changing the Codetermination Act with a view to Conti supervisory board chairman Wolfgang Reitzle.

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IG Metall broke off talks with the Conti management because they saw “no more starting points for possible compromises”.

After several warning strikes, Babenhausen is in an "escalation scenario", warned Köhlinger.

"If the management does not give in, a ballot on the open-ended strike is possible."

Conti has so far failed to look for alternative fields of employment for the location, where around 2500 employees are to go, said the district chief.

For legal reasons, IG Metall cannot strike against the closure of the plant, but it can strike for the implementation of an expensive social collective agreement, for which the first unsuccessful negotiations have already taken place.

The union also wants to implement reliable planning of investments, product placements and their effects on employees within the framework of the area tariff for the metal and electrical industry through so-called future collective agreements.

In some cases, the companies simply overslept the necessary conversion to electric drives and digitization and made high profits for years, said Köhlinger.

In the first round of negotiations, the employers then showed a “diabolical joy in bad numbers” and denied any signs of a quick recovery.

Köhlinger defended the nationwide uniform demand for four percent more money than “moderate”, especially since the money could also be used to offset partial wages when working hours were reduced.

Employees and companies alike appreciate additional flexibility in terms of working hours.

For people this will secure jobs, give space for qualifications and lead to a better work-life balance.