This individual speaking turn in an official commission discussion concerns the compatibility of participatory governance with managerial authority in coal mining. Lederer begins by treating cooperation, rather than institutional antagonism, as the organizing principle of the industry:
Die ganze Führung des Wirtschaftsbetriebes ist doch auf ein einverständiges Zusammenarbeiten aller im Kohlenbergbau tätigen Schichten und der übrigen Schichten der Volksgesamtheit gestellt.
English translation: The entire management of the economic enterprise is, after all, founded on cooperative agreement among all groups active in coal mining and the other groups of the population as a whole.
He acknowledges some force in the objection that a persistent latent conflict might exist between the coal directorate and management. His answer turns on institutional authorization: a directorate appointed by the Reich Coal Council enjoys that council’s confidence. Appointment thus supplies a basis of trust, although Lederer does not specify procedures for resolving subsequent disagreements.
The argument then shifts from institutional confidence to the workers’ standing within the enterprise:
Ich kann, wenn ich nicht eine ganz diktatorische Leitung bestimmen will, nicht umhin, einen Wirtschaftskörper zu konstruieren, in welchem die im Betriebe Tätigen etwas zu sagen haben.
English translation: Unless I wish to establish an entirely dictatorial management, I cannot avoid constructing an economic body in which those working in the enterprise have a say.
Lederer’s central conceptual move is to distinguish participation from the abolition of hierarchy. Those employed remain subordinate to management in operational matters; their right to influence it is no anomaly, but already characterizes measures directed toward co-determination and workplace democratization. Management must sometimes accept an intervention from those it directs. The contribution’s significance lies in this concise defense of shared authority: managerial leadership and employee voice can coexist, while excluding the latter would mean choosing dictatorship. Its scope is an institutional justification, not a detailed programme for reorganizing coal production.
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