Bracing for 'worst', Thyssenkrupp steel workers warn of major restructuring

FILE PHOTO: A steel worker of ThyssenKrupp stands amid sparks of raw iron coming from a blast furnace at a ThyssenKrupp steel factory in Duisburg, western Germany, November 14, 2022. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay/File Photo

DUESSELDORF/FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Thyssenkrupp’s powerful labour representatives on Wednesday warned management of cutting jobs or capacity as part of an expected sale of the conglomerate’s steel division, saying workers had to be prepared for the worst.

Concerned that management may take more drastic steps as part of a planned partial sale of the steel unit to Czech energy group EPH, workers said they had hired a consultancy to come up with future scenarios that would preserve the business in its current size and scope.

“We are not ruling anything out, but it remains clear to us that we want to keep Stahl in its current size,” Tekin Nasikkol, who heads Thyssenkrupp’s works council and sits on the group’s supervisory board, said in a handout to workers.

He said Thyssenkrupp’s owners wanted to see results while their patience was running thin and that therefore workers “need to prepare for the worst”.

In the leaflet, the IG Metall union said it would insist that the group’s sites and roughly 27,000 jobs would be kept and that a previously agreed job guarantee until March 2026 would be honoured.

Sources told Reuters last week that Thyssenkrupp and EPH were facing delays in talks about a steel joint venture as ongoing contract negotiations with automotive clients hamper the German group’s efforts to work up a necessary business plan.

(Reporting by Tom Kaeckenhoff and Christoph Steitz, Editing by Rachel More)