Nadine Florian, the chairwoman of the EWC, opened the meeting. She mentioned the various existing challenges, such as war, inflation and others. She criticized the redundancies at the company of the latest past, especially because there is a huge need to integrate the renewable energies into the business and to expand in energy storage technology and smart grids.

Nadine also touched on the issue of the problems at Siemens Gamesa RE. She then presented the content of the Global Framework Agreement, which has been negotiated with the management and which will hopefully signed soon. Finally, she explained the agenda of the EWC meeting and also made clear the rights and duties of the EWC delegates, which are limited to their respective country.

Then, all delegates, the representatives of the EWC office, Ev Zirkler and Marius Hafner-Tomaschek, and Manuel Bloemers and Dirk Linder from the German union IG Metall introduced themselves.

Hans Kreimer, the EWC delegate from Austria, will enter his retirement at the end of the month. Nadine Florian said farewell on behalf of the EWC and mentioned the good cooperation with him during the last three years. Hans Kreimer had been a delegate for Austria on the Siemens Europe Committee (SEC) for many years and had been the speaker of his region at the Siemens Energy EWC. Hans Kreimer said good-bye to the other delegates and expressed his best wishes for the future.

The EWC elected Johannes Kopp from Austria unanimously first as second deputy chairman of the EWC and then as speaker of the region Central/East Europe. Johannes Kopp accepted the votes and thanked the delegates.

Frederik Sörensen (CO-Industri) and Egon Nykjaer (Dansk Metal) explained the system of unions and employee representation in Denmark.

Manuel Bloemers (IG Metall) commented on the situation of the company from the point of view of the German union IG Metall.

Jens Sörensen (Denmark; speaker of the region North/West Europe), Rebeca Ribes (Spain; speaker of the region South/West Europe) and Hans Kreimer (Austria; speaker of the region Central/East Europe) gave the reports about the regional meetings. The meeting for the region Central/East Europe will take place in October. Rebeca Ribes especially mentioned the difficulties in Italy to reach a collective agreement for Siemens-Gamesa and the concerns of the unions in Spain about the intended sale of parts of Siemens-Gamesa.

Robert Kensbock, EWC delegate from Germany and chairman of the Works Council of Siemens Energy Germany, gave some information on the situation of the company in Germany. The main current issue is the integration of Siemens Gamesa RE. He mentioned some successes, such as the guarantee of permanent employment after apprenticeship in the company, better wages for students or the harmonization of the working time for employees in former East and West Germany.

The delegates prepared the discussion with the management on the next day. Luis Nuin (Spain) proposed to form committees of the EWC for certain topics. Nadine Florian suggested to organize an online exchange, whenever necessary.

Horst Hakelberg (Germany) gave a report of the meeting of the Siemens-Gamesa working group. The EWC decided to not continue this working group. All discussions on Siemens-Gamesa will now take place at the EWC meetings.

Nadine Florian presented the schedule for the next EWC meeting and the regional meetings. The EWC meeting of next year will take place in Vagos, Portugal.

On the second day of the meeting, Mr. Holt (HR Director), Mrs. Vargiu-Breuer (head of HR), Mr. Coetzee (HR Siemens-Gamesa), Mr. Bang (Siemens Energy Denmark) and the experts from the management, Mrs. Frank-Steffensen and Mr. Cleven (Health and Safety) resp. Mr. Kunz (Apprenticeship), joined the meeting.

Mr. Bang gave some information on the activities and the situation of the company in Denmark.Mr. Holt gave a report on the situation of the company from the point of view of the management. He said, that he sees the need to increase the investment in renewable energy. The main growth is happening in the fields of Wind Power and Transmission. Whereas the economic situation at Gas Services, Grid Technologies and the business of “Transformation of Industry” is very good, there are problems at Siemens-Gamesa.

The order backlog of the company is very high and still growing. The quality problems at the onshore part of Siemens-Gamesa have to be solved, the production of offshore products has to be increased and Siemens-Gamesa has to focus on less regions and product variations. Siemens Gamesa is now owned completely by Siemens Energy.

The delegates asked their questions to the management. Mr. Holt said, that relocation of manufacturing to Hungary will only concern the turbine factory in Berlin. No other locations will be affected. He also said, that the sale of the non-core business of Siemens-Gamesa is intended, but has become more difficult because of the rising interest rates.

Günter Augustat (Germany) and Nadine Florian emphasized the importance to harmonize the working conditions in all locations of Siemens Energy in Europe and worldwide. Mr. Holt mentioned the Global Framework Agreement in this context. He added  that there is no new information concerning the intended sale of the “Bushings, Insulation, Coils” business. This concerns about 8-9 factories worldwide.

He said, that the percentage of the employees in low-cost countries is below average at Siemens Energy. The decisions on relocations have to be made by the level of management, that is responsible for the respective products.

Nadine Florian demanded a full and comprehensive on any new location of the company. This information was not given to the EWC regarding the new engineering center in Łódź (Poland).

Mrs. Frank-Steffensen and Mr. Cleven presented the Health and Safety organization of Siemens Energy. The delegates discussed their presentation. Mrs. Frank-Steffensen offered support for each location and any local efforts.

Mr. Kunz gave some information on the apprenticeship programs of Siemens Energy in various countries and the new concepts for these programs. In the discussion with the delegates, he agreed, that the programs can possibly be expanded to more countries. This will depend on the situation in each country.

Mr. Coetzee talked about the integration process of Siemens-Gamesa. He expressed his optimism concerning the payroll problems, that had occurred. Mrs. Vargiu-Breuer said, that the management intends to harmonize the processes and benefits of Siemens Energy and Siemens-Gamesa. Mr. Coetzee promised to check the situation regarding the collective agreement at Siemens-Gamesa in Italy.

At the end of the meeting with the management, Nadine Florian summarized the results. She appreciated, that there were some positive commitments of the managements, but also said, that there are open points.

(Report: Dirk Linder)