As drastic cuts loom at US car giant Ford’s Cologne plant, union leaders are concerned that the future of the carmaker’s German operations could now be in jeopardy.
Ford recently announced plans to cut 2,900 jobs in Cologne over the next three years. That amounts to about a quarter of the approximately 12,000 employees currently employed by Ford in the western German city.
At a meeting of Ford Germany employees on Wednesday, works council leader Benjamin Gruschka described the announcement as a “brutal downsizing plan” that is “unacceptable” to employees.
Ford union IG Metall spokesman David Lüdtke warned that the cuts could spell doom for the plant.
“If this plan is put into practice, it will mean the dismantling of our site and for us it also means that we will die in installments,” Lüdtke said.
The audience at the factory meeting was sometimes deathly quiet. Some employees were crying. Labor leaders said around 8,000 workers attended the mass meeting.
Ford management has not publicly detailed the plans, but Lüdtke told reporters on Wednesday that the automaker’s plans are “no longer a typical downsizing” but involve eliminating entire divisions with hundreds of employees.
According to Lüdtke, Ford management told the union that “they only want to focus on their core business, which is developing and building cars.”
Everything else – “manufacturing services, components, vehicle parts, maintenance, repairs and servicing” – are all in danger of being cut altogether, he said.
Informed sources told dpa that Ford plans to cut back on areas such as factory security and the factory canteen, and instead outsource these functions to an external service provider.
There will also be cuts in governance and development.
Electric car production, on the other hand, is not expected to be directly affected. Ford produces two electric models in Cologne.
It employs about 2,500 people in electric vehicle production, although the company has imposed reduced hours due to weak sales.
Gruschka accused management of making serious mistakes and that employees would now have to ‘bleed’ under the cuts.
“We need a vision for this site,” the union leader said. “We are advocating a concept for the future. We have to think about the car differently. Electric cars are built differently than some other combustion engines in the past. It is a moving computer with four wheels.”
Benjamin Gruschka (R), chairman of the General Works Council of the Ford factories, speaks together with David Luedtke, head of the IG Metall shop stewards at the Ford factory, at a press conference after the factory meeting. Details about the planned job cuts at car manufacturer Ford in Cologne were to be announced at a factory meeting in the morning. Several thousand employees were expected, fearing for their jobs. Oliver Berg/dpa
