Conti and IG BCE Trade Union settle plant dispute

ERJ staff report (RD)

Hannover, Germany - Continental and the IG BCE Trade Union (Industriegewerkschaft Bergbau, Chemie, Energie; Industrial Union Mining,Chemistry, Energy) have agreed a solution package to their dispute over the Hannover-Stöcken tyre production plant in Germany, a joint press release said 19 May.

The dispute began after Continental's decision to reduce production capacity by more than two million tyres per year at production plants in Puchov, Slovakia, Otrokovice, Czech Republic and Hannover-Stöcken in Germany, because of a massive drop in demand in Europe.

The new compromise package will see tyre production suspended at the Hannover-Stöcken plant as of the end of 2009, with the remaining employees operating fully on short-time working, the statement said. The company will also maintain a production cell with a capacity of 500 000 tyres through to the end of 2010, operated by 300 employees. A decision will then be made in 2010 to decide if production will continue through to 2011, the statement added.

Continental and IG BCE also said a severance plan will be agreed by plant management and the workers council to allow 200 employees to leave the plant in 2009. A further 225 employees will be phased out of the plant workforce during 2010 “on the basis of a reconciliation of interests and a severance package.”

“The package is the result of several rounds of intensive talks that came close to being broken off at a number of points. In the end, however, the two sides moved closer and, against the backdrop of a dogged and complex economic situation, faced up to their responsibility,” said Werner Bischoff of the IG BCE Executive Committee in Hannover, 19 May.

“With the compromise we are taking into account the persistent situation and the ever more devastating collapse of the market, necessitating an adjustment of production output in Europe,” said Hans-Joachim Nikolin, member of the Continental Executive Board. “The compromise gives us the requisite latitude to operatively optimize our production portfolio already in 2010,” he added.

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Press release from Continental & the IG BCE Trade Union