Representatives of the Siemens Europe Committee meet with union representatives from Gamesa in Bilbao.
On April 25th 2017, representatives of the Siemens Europe Committee from Germany, Denmark, UK, Netherlands and Spain met with union representatives from Gamesa in Spain. Later, there was also a discussion with the management about the future of the new company.
The meeting had been called by the Executive Committee of the Siemens Europe Committee, which was represented by Harald Kern, Bettina Haller, Roy Lund and Ferran Navarro. From the Siemens side, union representatives from Wind Power sites in Hamburg (Germany), Denmark, Hull (UK), Netherlands and Spain took part in the meeting. Birgit Steinborn, the chair of the Central Works Council of Siemens Germany also took part. From Gamesa, 8 representatives of UGT (Unión General des Trabajadores; General Workers´ Union), 7 from CCOO (Comisiones Obreras; Workers´ Commissions) and 5 from ELA (Eusko Langileen Alkartasuna; Basque Workers´ Alliance) were there.
Birgit Steinborn and Harald Kern explained the background of the decision of Siemens to take over the majority share of Gamesa. The two companies fit very well together, as well technologically as by their global presence on the markets. There is a problem about the unclear future of the Gamesa subsidiary Adwen, which was supposed to be sold. This could not be completed, so now there can be a problem of overlapping capacities. No information has been given to the union representatives and the Works Council up to now about this issue. The new formed company will be based in Bilbao, which creates the problem that there will be no participation of the employees´ representation on the management resp. the supervisory board of the company.
Harald Kern pointed out, that the Siemens Europe Committee has reached a guest mandate for the union representatives of Gamesa from Spain in the Siemens Europe Committee for the rest of the running term. The most important issue now is the cooperation of the unions in Spain at Gamesa and the new formed company.
The management, headed by Mr. Wallisch (head of Siemens HR), informed about the merger of Siemens Wind Power and Gamesa from their point of view. They said, that so far, there are no certain plans regarding manpower or products. They underlined that the new company has every chance to be successful in a growing market.
Thomas Ahme from Siemens in Hamburg proposed to let the employees´ representatives take part in the integration process by a project group formed of management and employees´ representatives. This demand was supported by Birgit Steinborn, Harald Kern and the union representatives from Gamesa. It will be discussed with the HR management.
The management promised to keep the employee representations updated about the process and the Siemens Europe Committee and the unions from Gamesa agreed on their further exchange of information.