West German General Newspaper
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The Greens are increasing the pressure on Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) to allow an industrial electricity price. In an interview with the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ, Monday edition), Frank Bsirske, labor market policy spokesman for the Greens parliamentary group, spoke out in favor of “a reduced price for industrial electricity in Germany” in order to maintain Germany’s competitiveness. According to a Handelsblatt report, Robert Habeck’s (Greens) Ministry of Economics will soon present a concept for an industrial electricity price for energy-intensive industry that would cost a low double-digit billion amount over a period of five years. Finance Minister Lindner is skeptical about this.
The long-time Verdi chairman Bsirske is convinced that German industry needs further help from politicians when switching to climate-neutral production. He is convinced that this also includes a response by the European Union to the US Inflation Reduction Act, which massively subsidizes investments in climate protection in the US. “The EU must react to this, for example by guaranteeing companies that invest in Europe instead of going to America the same support they would receive in the USA,” Bsirske told WAZ.
Bsirske is also in favor of politicians helping the collective bargaining partners to increase collective bargaining coverage in Germany. “The erosion of collective bargaining has been a huge problem for many years. Politicians have a duty to do something about it. Our government will present a collective bargaining law for the federal government in the coming weeks. But that can only be the beginning. For example, by making it easier collective agreements are declared to be general,” said Bsirske. He also emphasized that the EU had also instructed Berlin to do the same: “Germany should increase its collective bargaining coverage from currently around 50 percent to 80 percent. We still have a lot to do.”
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Original content from: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, transmitted by news aktuell
