Federnwerk Marienberg produces metal springs and components, mostly for the car industry. Before it was shortlisted, it had to undergo scrutiny by an independent expert from the Institute for Business and Social Ethics, says Ulrich Petzschke, the company's personnel manager. What he saw obviously convinced him.
Rationalisation means job cuts elsewhere.
Here, however, investments are being made to create jobs, said Ulrich Petzschke. The number of people employed by the firm had sharply decreased up to 1993, but there have been no redundancies for economic reasons since 1995. That was by no means the most obvious thing in the world in an economically depressed region like the Ore Mountain where there is hardly any major industry. The fact that the management are still creating jobs in spite of the enormous competition is quite some achievement, according to Peter Blasius, aged 43, who works for Federnwerk Marienberg as a fitter. He was taken on in 1973, a year after the company, designed as a showcase of the Socialist state, had started production with 1,500 employees.