Thyssenkrupp steel workers warn against big restructuring

DUESSELDORF/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Thyssenkrupp's labour representatives on Wednesday warned the German conglomerate's management against cutting jobs or capacity as part of an expected sale of its steel division.

Concerned Thyssenkrupp may take such steps as part of a planned partial sale to Czech energy group EPH, workers said they had hired a consultancy to come up with future scenarios that would preserve the steel unit's current size and scope.

"We are not ruling anything out, but it remains clear to us that we want to keep Stahl in its current size," Tekin Nasikkol, who heads Thyssenkrupp's works council and sits on the group's supervisory board, said in a handout seen by Reuters.

Thyssenkrupp declined to comment.

Nasikkol said the patience of Thyssenkrupp's owners was running thin and workers "need to prepare for the worst".

In the leaflet distributed to workers, the IG Metall union said it would insist that Thyssenkrupp's sites and roughly 27,000 jobs would be kept and that a previously agreed job guarantee until March 2026 would be honoured.

Sources told Reuters last week that Thyssenkrupp and EPH were facing delays in talks on a steel joint venture as ongoing contract negotiations with automotive clients hamper the German group's efforts to prepare a necessary business plan.

IG Metall also said Thyssenkrupp needs to maintain steel production capacity of 11.5 million tonnes a year and that all blast furnaces should be retrofitted for decarbonised output.

This demand also refers to HKM, Thyssenkrupp's steel joint venture with Salzgitter and France's Vallourec, the future of which is seen as uncertain and which is considered to be first in line for potential capacity cuts.

(Reporting by Tom Kaeckenhoff and Christoph Steitz; Editing by Rachel More and Alexander Smith)