Metalworkers’ union head warns Green party against overlooking energy transition’s social challenges

The German Green Party should not overlook the concerns of workers in the steel or car industry when it debates the decarbonisation of the country’s economy, metalworker union IG Metall head Jörg Hofmann said as a guest speaker at the Greens’ annual party conference, Stefan Braun writes in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Hofmann said representatives of the right-wing nationalist party AfD routinely tried to intercept metalworkers right in front of their factories to exploit frustration with the government’s handling of the dieselgate scandal and to incite resistance towards progressive climate policy. “For Hofmann, this is proof that climate protection can only be implemented if it is accepted and accompanied by social policies,” Braun writes.

Read the article in German here (paywall).                          

Find background on the Greens latest election success in the CLEW article Merkel prepares departure in shock move at key time for climate policy.