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A Leopard tank on a test drive (2012): "School instead of tanks"?
Photo: DPA/ Krauss-Maffei Wegmann
The IG Metall fights for the preservation of the test track of the tank builder Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) in Munich.
Without the test track, the entire site with »1650 highly specialized jobs would be in danger.
A relocation would also have negative effects on numerous suppliers," said the managing director of IG Metall Munich, Stefanie Krammer.
The union therefore called for a rally in front of the tank factory next Tuesday.
Ralf Bergschneider, head of the works council, Ralf Ketzel, managing director of KMW, and Christian Müller, head of the SPD parliamentary group in Munich, want to speak there.
Krauss-Maffei Wegmann builds and maintains Leopard battle tanks and Boxer wheeled armored vehicles in Munich.
Before they are delivered to the Bundeswehr and other customers, they have been tested on the test track in the north-west of Munich since 1964.
"It's obvious that production and the test track belong together," said works council chief Bergschneider.
If KMW had to relocate production, research and development, it would be a disaster for the employees and their families.
An initiative »Schools instead of Tanks« has filed a lawsuit against the test track with the Munich Administrative Court.
It was never approved under building law and is therefore illegal.
Tanks "generally have no place in Munich."
KMW Managing Director Ketzel said: »Our test track has been a fundamental part of our company here in Allach for almost 60 years.
The workplaces of hundreds of employees are directly connected to the test track.«
KMW has joined forces with the French armaments group Nexter to form the KNDS joint venture.
Germany and France agreed in 2020 to develop a joint successor to the German Leopard 2 main battle tank and the French Leclerc main battle tank under German leadership
mic/dpa-afx
