ABSTRACT
As an example of worker-involvement in steel company innovation, the following case is relevant. E+H GmbH is a services company belonging to Thyssen Stahl AG (TST) and Ruhrkohle AG (RAG) in the western Ruhr area. As a private railway company, it carries the materials of the steelworks in in-company transit and trans-ships goods at two harbours it owns on the Rhine. On the whole the approximately 70 million tonnes of cargo transported by E+H each year is made up of ore, sinter, coal, coke, hot iron and hot crude steel, as well as semi-finished steel products and finished rolled steel products. Here, with 8 tonnes having to be transported to produce 1 tonne of steel, a high tonnage arises that demands a cheap means of mass transportation. The structural changes in the steel industry and cost structures in the transport sector place narrow constraints on the future transport and employment volume at E+H. For E+H this means at best stagnating handling figures.
