BERLIN (Reuters) - German Economy Minister Brigitte Zypries said on Wednesday that employees were not yet convinced about plans for Germany's Thyssenkrupp (>> ThyssenKrupp) and India's Tata Steel (>> Tata Steel Limited) to merge and added that all affected parties needed to accept any deal.
Thyssenkrupp and Tata Steel struck a preliminary deal on Wednesday to merge their European steel operations in a 50-50 joint venture to create the continent's No.2 steelmaker after ArcelorMittal (>> ArcelorMittal).
"The employees are not yet convinced about this decision and they are very concerned about job losses," Zypries said in an emailed statement.
"It's not conceivable that there could be a sustainable solution that goes against the will of the employees and the company management needs to know that," Zypries added.
(Reporting by Gernot Heller; Writing by Michelle Martin; Editing by Michael Nienaber)