Press Release No. 06/2010 IG Metall: “Future Agreement with Schaeffler Shows That Companies and IG Metall ...

Frankfurt – One year after signing the “Agreement for the Future” with Schaeffler, IG Metall has given a positive assessment of the outcome. “The ‘Agreement for the Future’ shows that companies and IG Metall can successfully break new ground during a crisis. The agreement has stabilized the Conti/Schaeffler group and secured employees’ jobs and collective bargaining terms in the midst of the deepest crisis. Employees’ position is significantly strengthened by corporate co-determination and the agreed-upon future employee profit-sharing,” said IG Metall Chairman Berthold Huber on Tuesday in Frankfurt.

Huber emphasized that the Future Agreement, signed exactly one year ago, had ushered in a new era of cooperation between the family-owned company, the employees, and the union. In the Future Agreement, IG Metall had expressed its support for the industrial policy concept of the Continental-Schaeffler alliance and for the role of the Schaeffler family as a key anchor shareholder in the interest of the company’s sustainable development.

For their part, the shareholders of the Schaeffler Group committed in the agreement to safeguarding jobs and adhering to collective bargaining agreements. They declared their willingness to introduce employee co-determination comparable to that of a stock corporation and to give employees a stake in the shareholders’ future ownership of the company. The “Joint Committee,” composed of equal numbers of representatives from management and labor, met for the first time on February 9, 2010. Layoffs for operational reasons are ruled out at Schaeffler until June 30, 2010.