Economic crisis
Thousands of people protest against job cuts at ZF
The car supplier ZF is in a financial difficulty. The workforce takes the street to defend itself against further cuts. Thousands of jobs are in danger.
Thousands of employees have taken to the streets at several German locations of the battered car supplier ZF Friedrichshafen in order to set an example against further austerity measures. At the headquarters on Lake Constance alone, there were almost 6,000 participants, as overall manager Achim Dietrich said.
All attempts to renovate the group with the help of the consulting company McKinsey have so far not been successful. There were also protests in Saarbrücken and at the Lower Franconian location in Schweinfurt. According to the police and IG Metall, 4,500 people demonstrated there.
In Friedrichshafen, two demonstration trains moved to the company headquarters. The participants expressed their resentment about planned further cuts. According to the works council, further cuts were announced at company meetings around two weeks ago. Employees should forego money, and operational terminations are therefore no longer excluded.
Thousands of jobs are threatened
By the end of 2028, ZF plans to delete up to 14,000 jobs in Germany – that would be every fourth ZF job in the country. Recently there were rumors about plans for a possible sale of the “E-Division” area or that a partner should be brought on board. A ZF spokesman did not want to comment on the subject.
“We invest in the areas that are already successful today, and we restructure and develop the areas that are not yet successful. This also requires cuts in the salaries and reduction in jobs in Germany, but not across the board, but very targeted.” The aim is to maintain as many jobs as possible in Germany.
ZF makes high loss in 2024
According to IG Metall, a few hundred employees of other companies such as Schaeffler, Bosch Rexroth or SKF were also on the street in Schweinfurt. According to the union, ZF has around 8,500 employees in Schweinfurt, 5,500 of them in “Division E”.
ZF suffers – like the competitors Bosch, Continental and Schaeffler – from the lack of orders from the manufacturers and high costs for change to the electric motor. The supplier has, among other things, automatic and manual transmission, steering systems, drives or brakes. Last year, over one billion euros of loss was written.
dpa
Source: Stern
