In the dispute over an early exit from coal in the east, the group works council of the energy company Leag canceled its participation in the closed conference of the Greens parliamentary group. This emerges from an open letter to the parliamentary group. The reason is that the Greens also want to bring the coal phase-out forward by eight years to 2030 in the East. The exam in Weimar starts on Tuesday. The parliamentary group leadership reacted to the cancellation with regret and astonishment.
The letter from the works council chairman Uwe Teubner and his deputy Toralf Smith states that the Greens have invited the group works council to discuss “structural change”, under which it should report on how it could succeed. “To put it in a nutshell: Certainly not by setting an arbitrary new exit date. But that is exactly the very obvious purpose of this retreat.” Leag mines lignite in Lusatia and operates power plants.
Anger and resentment among Leag workers
The group works council points out that the coal commission set up by the federal government has decided on a compromise that is “difficult but ultimately workable” for employees in the industry. This provided for a gradual phase-out of coal-fired power generation in Germany by 2038. The Coal Phase-Out Act, which is still valid today, and the public-law contract that the Federal Republic of Germany has concluded with the companies concerned are based on this compromise. “We stand by this law and this contract.”
The employees were angry and annoyed about plans to phase out coal in the east by 2030, Teubner told the German Press Agency. You don’t want to read the headline that the group works council is negotiating with the Greens at the retreat about an early exit, hence the rejection. The power plant units were running at full capacity, and 1,000 new employees were only hired last year.
Green faction leader: dialogue important
The parliamentary group leader Katharina Dröge reacted with regret to the cancellation. “For us, dialogue and exchange are important principles of our politics. The conversation is worthwhile especially when there are different perspectives,” she told the German Press Agency in Berlin. The offer to talk will “of course” continue to exist.
“At the same time, we are surprised at the short-term cancellation. Because of course we made the planned decision available to our guests in advance. It was communicated transparently in advance that it would also be about the coal phase-out in 2030,” emphasized Dröge. Media reporting was also announced in advance. The ARD “Capital Studio” and the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” first reported on the draft resolution at the weekend.
Especially when topics are controversial, it is worth talking to each other, said Dröge. “We want planning security and reliability for the employees in the region. Only if we shape the structural change together will there be great opportunities for jobs and companies.”
Leag works council: “No sense in a participation fiction”
An early phase-out of coal by 2030 has now been agreed for the Rhenish mining area in the west. The Leag Group works council criticized the fact that the law contained clear criteria, among other things, for security of supply and energy costs as well as monitoring dates for checking the exit. “With the RWE deal, we deviated from this in a way that is unacceptable to us. We are not available for such deals. That’s why we don’t see any sense in a fictional participation, as intended with the invitation to us.”
A draft resolution for the closed meeting of the Greens group states that a coal phase-out in the east in 2030 would be a “necessary step to achieve the climate goals”. In the coalition agreement, the SPD, Greens and FDP agreed to “ideally” bring the phase-out of coal forward by eight years to 2030. Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) had already spoken out in favor of an early exit from coal in the East, but assured that this would have to be agreed by consensus. Whether the traffic light partners SPD and FDP will play along is an open question.
