But it soon became impossible for either the Cabinet or the Trades Unions to remain in this almost completely negative position; for the struggle for the _Mitbestimmungsrecht_ ceased to be merely a debate among theoreticians. At the beginning of March the workers in the metallurgical industry declared a general strike in Berlin; and in April the miners of Central Germany did the same. The Cabinet found itself forced to modify its point of view. Receiving at Weimar a delegation of strikers come to present an ultimatum to him, Scheidemann recanted the communication of February 26, and engaged himself by a written promise to effect the recognition of the principle of Councils in the Constitution.[61] One month later he fulfilled his promise. On April 5, a new note made known under what conditions and to what extent the Cabinet envisaged the possibility of organizing and utilizing the Councils. He proposed to inscribe in the Constitution an article proclaiming in general terms the right of workers to participate in common and on equal terms with employers in the regulation of questions of wages and work, as well as in the development of the forces of production in the common economic interest. By the side of special Workers Councils there were to be mixed Councils which would have general economic authority. On their side the Trades Unions also found themselves obliged to seek a working basis, and they concluded by agreeing to the introduction of Councils in German economic life, on the condition that a very sharp separation be marked between the powers of the Factory Workers Councils and the Economic Councils on the one hand, and those of the Trades Unions themselves on the other. Another condition was that assurance must be given the Trades Unions that the _Workers Councils would fulfil their mission in accord with the Trades Unions_. At the Congress of Nuremberg, July, 1919, the Trades Unions engaged themselves to use their whole influence to secure for the workers and employés the _Mitbestimmungsrecht_ in the various industries and to help the Factory Workers Councils to play an effective part. 2.--CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS RELATIVE TO THE COUNCILS. It was agreed, then, to recognize for wage-earners and salaried employés the right of co-operation in the conduct of industries and that all parties to the productive organization of the nation must co-operate in the regulation of economic questions. This idea is developed and in part realized in the provisions of Article 165, which form the foundation of the future Economic Constitution.