Cutting the fat: Siemens reserved about workers' job pact proposals
11:26 a.m. Jan 17, 1999 Eastern
FRANKFURT, Jan 17 (Reuters) - German electronics and engineering giant Siemens AG
said at the weekend it had major reservations about workers' calls for a company-wide job
security pact as it prepares to restructure its business.
Union and Siemens' workers' council proposals to guarantee 190,000 domestic jobs at the
company would prevent ''appropriate measures'' to keep it competitive, a Siemens'
spokesman said on Saturday.
The company was however prepared to discuss the proposals, he added.
The jobs guarantee plan was announced on Saturday at a joint IG Metall union and
Siemens' workers' council conference in the southern city of Nuremberg.
IG Metall, Germany's largest industrial union, and the company workers' council said
they would press for a jobs pact at Siemens' annual general meeting on Feb 17.
Last November the company said it planned a massive $2.4 billion shake-up, including the
sale of units with a combined annual turnover of 17 billion marks ($10 billion) and 60,000
staff.
The company said at the time it was also weighing the flotation of its Siemens Nixdorf
Retail and Banking Systems unit and its semiconductor business.
Siemens employs around 440,000 workers worldwide and is one of Germany's biggest
private sector employers.
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