PRESS STATEMENT The ecological transition can only succeed with investment

Jörg Hofmann: “Many industrial companies in eastern Germany still exist only because their workforces, together with works councils and unions, fought to keep them open. The rescue of the Siemens site in Görlitz is one example of this. For eastern Germany, this transformation represents the second profound upheaval within a single generation. It must be used to give people a sense of the future and to secure industrial jobs. The social aspect must not be neglected in the ecological transformation of industry. Climate protection and good, secure jobs need not be a contradiction. This requires investments in employee training and in industrial sites, as well as smart industrial and structural policies and close cooperation with research institutions. If, on the other hand, further deindustrialization occurs, only right-wing populists will benefit.”

“Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, it is high time to overcome the differences in working hours between the West and the East. Employees in the East German metal and electrical industries still work three hours longer per week than their colleagues in the West—for the same pay. It’s impossible to explain this difference to young people. They, in particular, expect us to harmonize working hours. A high level of collective bargaining coverage is an effective tool for harmonizing living conditions in the East and the West.”

Further information and press photos of Jörg Hofmann