In an industrial city like Mannheim, losing 1,000 jobs at the bus manufacturer Evobus would be very painful. Corresponding relocation plans from Daimler Truck call the SPD onto the scene.
Mannheim (dpa/lsw) – Around two months after Daimler Trucks announced that it would relocate part of its bus production from Mannheim to the Czech Republic, the SPD is calling for more commitment from green and black. “The state government must use its political weight to prevent job cuts,” said Boris Weirauch, an SPD economics expert and member of the Mannheim state parliament. After all, it’s about 1,000 industrial jobs in the body shell of Evobus.
Weirauch went on to say: “When awarding contracts, the public sector must make full use of the available legal framework and, in doing so, take greater account of social and employment policy aspects.” Too often, the cheapest offer simply wins the contract. He criticized the fact that the state-owned transport company SWEG had recently bought more and more buses from abroad. According to the ministry, the companies Solaris (Poland) and Iveco (Italy) were awarded nine vehicles for the state-owned SWEG in 2022. Evobus got nothing. The department of Minister Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut (CDU) explained that location criteria hardly played a role in Europe-wide tenders. The offers from Solaris and Iveco were cheaper.
SPD parliamentary group leader Stefan Fulst-Blei complained that Hoffmeister-Kraut was too passive. You can’t just wait for the company to approach you. This referred to a meeting planned for the autumn with management and the works council.
