Germany's powerful IG Metall trade union called on Thursday for transparency from management at Thyssenkrupp during increasingly troubled times for the country's traditional heavy industry. "We know and see that the company is in a serious situation," IG Metall deputy head Jürgen Kerner said in Bochum in the heart of the industrial Ruhr Region. Kerner also sits on Thyssenkrupp's supervisory board as deputy chairman. "We continue to need cooperation between the shareholders, the executive and the