Job cuts at Swiss Steel Steelworkers protest against redundancies in Emmenbrücke

Several hundred employees of Swiss Steel subsidiary Steeltec and supporters demonstrated against the planned redundancies in Emmenbrücke LU on Saturday. Instead, they are calling for short-time working to preserve expertise and production capacity.

Keystone-SDA

07.12.2024, 17:19

07.12.2024, 19:18

SDA

Around 350 people gathered at Emmenbrücke railroad station and marched towards the steelworks. Among the participants were representatives of the Steeltec staff representatives, a delegation of employees from Stahl Gerlafingen AG in Solothurn, representatives of trade unions and employee associations.

The Swiss Climate Strike also showed its solidarity. Its representatives prefer regional steel production to production abroad, as was made clear at the rally. They are also in favor of recycling scrap steel at the steelworks.

Criticism of the management

Lucerne SP National Councillors David Roth and Hasan Candan were also present. Roth, who is campaigning for the steel industry with a motion at federal level, warned of the consequences should the steelworks in Emmenbrücke and Gerlafingen cease to exist one day. Every day, 130 trucks carrying scrap metal cross the border and come back in again, he said. That is 47,000 journeys per year.

Roth also criticized the management of Swiss Steel: "It is unacceptable that a successful location has to pay for the international mistakes of the management," he said. Swiss Steel is just as responsible as Switzerland.

A Steeltec employee pointed out the cyclical nature of the steel industry. He emphasized that it is better to wait out difficult phases instead of hastily laying off employees. "It's not acceptable to cash in when times are good and lay people off when times are bad," he said.

80 redundancies planned

In mid-November, the steel group Swiss Steel announced 800 job cuts. At the production site in Emmenbrücke, which employs 750 people, 130 jobs are to be cut, 80 of them through redundancies.

This week, the job cuts were also discussed in the Lucerne Cantonal Council. In two postulates, the parliament instructed the government to support the preservation of jobs. However, the majority spoke out against subsidies and interference in entrepreneurial freedom.

Parliament also spoke out in favor of the motions by Council of States member Damian Müller (FDP/LU) and National Councillor David Roth (SP/LU) on the steel industry at federal level.