German Minister of Economics and Energy Brigitte Zypries on Friday urged Siemens AG to rethink planned job cuts and said that job losses, particularly in economically weaker areas of former East Germany, could spur an increase in right-wing populism.
Siemens might cut thousands of jobs as part of plans to overhaul its power and gas business, which is struggling with lower worldwide demand for large electricity generating turbines, a person familiar with the plans said last week.
Up to 11 work sites could be shut down.
Zypries told Siemens CEO Joe Kaeser in a letter published by the Bild newspaper that job losses in the former Communist east could have negative consequences.
“It is particularly critical when locations in structurally weak regions — for instance in eastern Germany — are up for discussion,” she told Kaeser. “It can fuel discontentment and doubts, and could have political fallout as we saw in the parliamentary election.”
The government has no legal authority to prevent private companies from carrying out layoffs, but it has other ways to pressure firms, including through corporate policies and reviews of export licenses.
In the case of Siemens, Berlin is currently examining how two Siemens gas turbines sold for use in Russia turned up in Crimea, a region subject to EU sanctions on energy technology.
Siemens management on Thursday met with labor bosses to discuss its power turbine business, but union IG Metall said that no new information was provided.
Juergen Kerner, a senior IG Metall official and member of the Siemens’ supervisory board, said reports that the company could close up to 11 of 23 facilities in the power turbine division had spooked workers and hundreds had already staged protests at sites in Erfurt, Goerlitz, Leipzig and Erlangen.
“Management is worried about margins, not people, and we cannot accept that,” Kerner told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung. “But we are ready for a longer fight.”
Siemens management reportedly plans to submit a restructuring plan to the company’s supervisory board on Nov. 8, the day before the group is due to publish quarterly financial results.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last