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Schrder's party rages at 'locust' foreign firms
Independent, The (London), May 6, 2005 by Tony Paterson in Berlin
The German Chancellor Gerhard Schrder's ruling Social Democrats have turned up the heat in an extraordinary political campaign against big business interests, claiming 'locust' firms which sack employees en masse are undermining democracy.
Wolfgang Thierse, the Social Democrat parliamentary president, accused foreign and domestic companies which dismissed staff while simultaneously reaping large profits of arousing feelings of 'helpless anger' among thousands of Germans.
The SPD's most frequently cited 'locust' is Deutsche Bank, which is committed to axing 6,400 of its 64,000-plus employees despite accruing profits of 25 per cent.
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Other cases include KKR's buyout of the German telecommunications firm, Telenovis, resulting in the axing of nearly half the company's 8,000 workforce despite agreement on a 12.5 per cent wage reduction.
Last week, it emerged the Social Democrats had even compiled a secret 'locust list' of investment companies considered guilty of antisocial business practices. The list, leaked to the German media, includes the names of several American investment firms such as Kohlberg, Kravis Roberts and Company, Blackstone and Goldmann Sachs.
'The anger results in aggressive criticism of the political system,' Mr Thierse said, adding that companies which enforced mass redundancies were guilty of 'Social irresponsibility which endangers democracy and social cohesion.'
Mr Thierse's remarks were the latest in a barrage of criticism delivered by the Social Democrats against foreign and domestic firms deemed to pursue casual hire-and-fire business practices.
The criticisms have provoked a backlash from German employers and prompted one prominent Jewish-born historian to accuse Mr Schrder's party of using 'Nazi language' and propaganda to heap shame on big business.
Critics have dismissed the campaign as an attempt by Mr Schrder's party to deflect blame over latest unemployment figures of 5 million, in the run-up to an important state election in just over a fortnight.
The row first erupted two weeks ago after senior Social Democrats called on German consumers to boycott the products of companies considered guilty of mass sackings. Franz Mntefering, the Social Democrat party leader, stepped up the invective with a speech in which he described companies that practised asset stripping as being run by investors who 'stay anonymous, have no face, fall upon companies like locusts, devour them and move on'.
The companies named in the 'locust list' have declined to respond to the criticisms, although, using unusually forceful language, Dieter Hundt, the head of Germany's employers association said the attacks on the country's business community 'make me want to throw up'.
Germany's conservatives have lambasted Mr Schrder's party over its campaign. Volker Kauder, the Christian Democrats' general secretary, said the attacks on companies would only create a climate that deterred investors and destroyed jobs.
'This sort of campaign is damaging our country. If a few companies have made mistakes in the past, it does not justify this kind of wholesale criticism of the business community,' he said.
Earlier this week, Mr Mntefering committed his party to a programme that will oblige senior managers to publish their salaries and German companies to pay their foreign workers union rates.
'In times of globalisation, we Social Democrats have to say how we are going to remain committed to a social market economy and not slip into pure market economics,' he said. So far, the Social Democrats' campaign appears to have done little to win over voters. In elections on 22 May in the state of North Rhine Westphalia, Mr Schrder's party is almost certain to face a defeat which would seriously undermine the chances of winning the 2006 general election.
Latest opinion polls show that the Christian Democrats are maintaining a 10-point lead.
Copyright 2005 Independent Newspapers UK Limited
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