Reason: With Dieter Zetsche as Chairman of the Board of Management and Manfred Bischoff as Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Daimler AG is headed by two executives who already bear part of the responsibility for the Daimler disaster of the Schrempp/Kopper era as they held top management positions at that time.
The current catastrophic condition of Daimler AG can be outlined as follows:
The earnings disaster is reflected by a loss of €2,644 million (2009). Two years before, there was still a net profit of €3,985 million (2007).
The revenue disaster is expressed in the financial year by a revenue slump from €101,569 million (2007) to the present €78,924 million (2009).
The sales disaster has become apparent in all four automotive divisions, Mercedes-Benz Cars, Daimler Trucks, Vans and Buses, whose sales partially fell by almost half within one year (see Trucks and Vans). Mercedes-Benz Cars sold approximately 200,000 vehicles fewer in 2009 than two years before.
The share-price disaster is to be seen in the end-of-year price of Daimler shares, which was languishing at €37.23 as of December 31, 2009. In comparison: It had still been at €66.50 in 2007 and at €94.20 in 1998 (DC).
The ecology disaster is described by Alexander Dauensteiner in his countermotion.
The data-protection disaster regarding health tests with the taking of blood samples during employees’ job-application procedure has been assessed by the data-protection authorities as a violation of data-protection laws and must be stopped.
The human-rights disaster is described in exemplary manner by Holger Rothbauer with the example of supporting the apartheid regime in South Africa.
The corruption disaster in more than 22 countries was described by the newspaper Stuttgarter Zeitung on March 29, 2010 as follows: ‘The US Justice Department is of the view that Daimler did nothing to reduce corruption. … There is talk of a corporate culture that not only tolerates, but actually encouraged bribery. … the efforts of individual employees to take action against unlawful payments were not sufficiently supported by the management until 2005.’ The last case is documented for the year 2008 – in the Zetsche era. While citizens are prosecuted for criminal offences, Daimler wants to buy its way out with a payment of 185 million dollars – what kind of understanding of legality is this!? See the countermotion of Beate Winkler-Pedernera for more details.
The armaments disaster is particularly evident in the supply of weapons by Daimler/EADS to regimes that violate human rights and to states that are waging war. See the countermotions of Paul Russmann and myself for more details.
The employment disaster has dramatic effects on the people concerned: Last year (2009), 256,407 people worked for Daimler AG. Two years before (2007), the number was 272,382.
The salary disaster consists of the Chairman of the Board of Management, Zetsche, who is to be held responsible for this failed business policy, being rewarded with an annual salary of €4.2 million!
Numerous lawsuits have been initiated in recent years by Messrs. Schrempp and Zetsche, as well as by the company, against such critics as Prof. Wenger and myself. We should be judicially silenced. This muzzle strategy has completely failed due to the groundbreaking verdict of the Federal Supreme Court on September 22, 2009 in favor of freedom of opinion and freedom of the press (see www.daimler-prozesse.net). The legal costs have to a large extent still not been paid – although the Group’s management lost the case.
The continuation of the longstanding Daimler disaster is primarily home made. The people responsible for these catastrophes are the members of the Supervisory Board, especially the members representing the shareholders. They approved the Board of Management policy meeting after meeting.
This Daimler disaster can only be alleviated by replacing the members of the Board of Management and Supervisory Board with competent women and men. A new management team has to implement the essential action for sustainable ecologicalization, conversion of the armaments division (conversion to meaningful civil production) and fundamental democratization – and thus for ethically and morally responsible action.
Please direct your inquiries to the Critical Shareholders ( dachverband@kritischeaktionaere.de, www.kritischeaktionaere.de). The ArmamentsInformationOffice (rib@rib-ev.de, www.rib-ev.de) and the DFG-VK (info@dfg-vk.de, www.dfg-vk.de) will provide information on the inhuman armaments business of Daimler/EADS and Daimler/Tognum. I am available for inquiries about the Daimler disaster (tel.: +49 761 7678208, mobile: +49 170 6113759, j.graesslin@gmx.de, www.juergengraesslin.com).«