The meeting was led by the Steering Committee of the unions represented at Siemens and Siemens Energy in the US and Canada, consisting of Brian Lamm (IBEW), John Shinn (USW), Craig Norman (IAM), Danny Sallie (IUE-CWA) and Mike Maddox (UAW).

The Steering Committee explained the background of the meeting to the new participants and the Siemens Global Framework Agreement and the “Memorandum of Understanding”, that has been agreed on with Siemens in 2016. They also described the negative development caused by the closure of several unionized plants, especially of Siemens Energy, in the last years.

Harald Kern, Bettina Haller, Robert Kensbock and Hagen Reimer explained the global development of Siemens and Siemens Energy and the current situation. Since the last meeting in the US, Siemens Energy has been separated from Siemens. Now, Siemens is carving out the business field “Large Drives Applications” (LDA).

The members of the Steering Committee see the level of information of the local management of Siemens about the Global Framework Agreement and the “Memorandum of Understanding” as insufficient. The growing separation of the various parts of the company have led to unclear responsibilities on the management side.

Jochen Schroth from IG Metall (head of the Department for Transnational Union Policies) pointed out, that the shaping of the industrial transformation process from our side is an im-portant issue. Kathrin Schäfers from IG Metall (Department of Transnational Union Policies) indicated the new Supply Chain Law in Germany.

The participants gave reports from their locations.

Mr. Cseplo (Siemens), Mrs. Wolownik (Siemens Mobility) and Mrs. Schrader (Siemens Healthineers) gave some information from the management´s side and answered the ques-tions of the participants.

The union representatives addressed especially the topic of apprenticeship programs and vocational training as an issue of possible cooperation of management and unions. They also demanded clear responsibilities on the management´s side after the separation of Siemens into several more or less independent parts.

The participants of the meeting agreed on another meeting in next year. Until this meeting, the Steering Committee will discuss the clarification of the responsibilities with the management. The union representatives from Germany and the US will also look for possible direct commu-nication between representatives of locations in Germany and the US of the same business field.

Report: Dirk Linder