Stuttgart – Berthold Huber, President of IG Metall, has sharply criticized the influence of business interests on politics. “We do not want a republic in which powerful interest groups use their money, their power, and their influence to dictate policy,” Huber said Saturday at a union protest rally in Stuttgart. People do not want austerity policies that destroy the welfare state and subordinate it to the dictates of profit. “Whether in Berlin or Stuttgart, whoever pursues such policies will face resistance everywhere.” Huber insisted that the interests and needs of the people—not shareholder value—must be the benchmark for politics and economic action.
Anyone who believes they can enrich themselves without restraint and steer the economy without regard for people or the environment is no longer acting in accordance with the Constitution. “These people are dividing our society, destroying social cohesion, and ensuring that the gap between rich and poor keeps widening,” Huber lamented. If politics were conducted solely for the benefit of a small minority, people would turn their backs on democracy, stop voting, or fall for the tricks of right-wing populist pied pipers. “It is unacceptable for decisions to be made over people’s heads,” said the IG Metall chairman.
Huber called for a fundamental change of course in the economy, society, and politics. This includes both regulating the financial markets and improving future opportunities for young people. “It makes a mockery of the social welfare state principle enshrined in our Basic Law when I see how negligently, how irresponsibly, and how cynically businesses and politicians are squandering the future prospects of our youth,” Huber criticized. Education has once again become a class issue—a class struggle waged from above against working-class and salaried families. Huber called on business and politics to create more apprenticeship positions and invest more in quality education.
The current economic upswing is passing many people by. While many industrial companies are posting double-digit profit growth, they are unwilling to share any of their profits. Yet it was the workers, in particular, who made sacrifices during the crisis and did everything they could to ensure that companies survived the worst economic crisis in postwar history. “During the upswing, workers want a share of the profits, too. That is their right,” Huber emphasized. It is unacceptable that some people are always just raking in the money and awarding themselves bonuses, while others are always the ones who have to pay and make sacrifices.
Huber accused employers of seeking to relegate permanent jobs, collectively bargained wages, and protection against dismissal to obsolete models. “We do not accept a two-tier society in the workplace, nor do we accept that people are poor despite having a job.” The federal government must finally put a stop to the abuse of temporary agency work. Furthermore, it must introduce a statutory minimum wage to put a stop to unscrupulous employers and prevent them from paying exploitative starvation wages.
Huber clearly rejected the idea of retirement at age 67. Anyone who has worked 30 years or more on an assembly line or in rotating shifts cannot be expected to work any longer. Even in offices and administrative roles, the workload has increased to such an extent that the work is making people sick. Anyone who wants to keep people trapped in this rat race any longer has no respect for people’s hard work and lifetime achievements. “Retirement at 67 must go. It must go, no ifs, ands, or buts,” demanded the union president.
