ESSEN (dpa-AFX) - NRW Minister President Hendrik Wüst (CDU) has called on the Thyssenkrupp Executive Board to involve employees in the future strategy for the steel division. "I expect the company management to draw up a plan for the future that is based on the successful tradition of our state: Involvement of co-determination, close cooperation between the social partners," Wüst told the "Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung" (Tuesday).

On Friday, Thyssenkrupp had announced that the steel division would acquire an energy company as a 20 percent co-owner: the holding company EPCG owned by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky. Employee representatives criticize the fact that they only found out about this shortly before the announcement was made. This Tuesday, thousands of employees from Thyssenkrupp's steel division plan to demonstrate in Duisburg against the management's actions.

Wüst said: "Steel is needed worldwide - and steel also has a future in North Rhine-Westphalia." This future could succeed above all if employers and employees walked the path together. "I assume that the management of Thyssenkrupp will take this into account in the tasks ahead. This is our clear aspiration."/sl/DP/zb