Car manufacturers under pressure
The union is for the first time the Cologne Ford-Werke
The Ford works in Cologne have been around since 1930, and has never been regularly strike there since. So now is over – and there are reasons for that.
For the first time in her almost hundred years of history, a strike hit Cologne Ford works and largely brought the work to a standstill. In the morning, IG Metall built up stream items on the workshops, and early shifts failed. Of the currently around 11,500 jobs, the company would like to dismantle 2,900 by the end of 2027, which led to a sharp protest.
IG Metall calls for a course correction and high severance payments for the employees who go voluntarily or whose jobs are outsourced to other companies. Operating terminations are excluded by 2032.
“The work rests here completely,” said the IG Metall spokesman at Ford Cologne, David Lüdtke after the first early shifts failed. The work of work affects the entire location – i.e. production, development, administration and other areas. “We don’t let anyone in.”
However, there are exceptions: Certain employees have access to an emergency service goal. “And if you absolutely want to be a strike breaker, you would come in – but we will talk to that beforehand,” said Lüdtke. At the emergency service goal, the stream post reported around nine o’clock that so far only three strikers had gone into it. On Thursday morning, the laying of work should be over with the end of the last night shifts.
Ford-Werke GmbH was founded in Berlin in 1925, and has had its headquarters in Cologne since 1930. There are several production facilities at the Cologne Ford location, for example for electric cars and for commercial vehicle gearboxes, so one speaks of Ford works. There is also a spare parts center.
First union strike
The Ford works have never had a strike of a union. In 1973 there was a “wild” – that is, unionized – exit from Turkish employees who resisted the dismissal of 300 compatriots and generally against discrimination. Their protest was unsuccessful at the time, neither the works council nor union supported them.
The current strike has nothing to do with this long ago. For him, IG Metall had carried out a match at the beginning of May, which resulted in a strike approval of 93.5 percent of the IG-Metall members working for Ford. Now the first industrial action started for a day.
The works council threatens other strikes
According to the Ford Germany headquarters, Benjamin Gruschka, the pressure on the employer by the strike is now increasing significantly. “It hurts, that costs him a few million today,” said the works council. If management does not move in terms of content, there will be further outstanding. “Then we will create further strike days and then it hurts more and more.”
Gruschka emphasized the importance of industrial action. He pointed out that the US mother group terminated a patronage declaration – a kind of guarantee for the Ford Germany subsidiary – and thereby put “his finger on the button of a possible bankruptcy”. “The colleagues know that it is about everything or nothing.” Due to the end of the patronage declaration, bankruptcy from Ford-Werke GmbH is theoretically possible, it was not before.
The IG Metall insists on a financial protective shield from the US mother for the employees, who would use bankruptcy in the event of this. Insolvency is currently pure theory, especially since the Ford Germany debt mountain has recently been significantly reduced after a US financial injection.
A Ford spokesman was optimistic after the start of the strike: “We are confident that we will agree in a joint conversation with our social partners.”
SPD politician criticizes Ford management
The strikers also received a visit from politics. The chairman of the SPD parliamentary group in the NRW state parliament, Jochen Ott, accused Ford management “unspeakable handling” with the employees. “The employees are entitled to get reasonable social offers – in the event that certain jobs are eliminated.”
Ford has now completely switched to the production of electric cars in Cologne, but is late when it comes to e-mobility. The production of the combustion engine small car Fiesta was discontinued in 2023, and now two electric off-road vehicles roll off the assembly line.
Social Democrat Ott remembers his early days as a member of the state parliament, in 2010 he was elected to the parliament. A Ford manager at the time dismissed electric cars as “nonsense” in conversation with him. “I told him,” we need an electric fiesta that is affordable for the mass of people “. That was wiped off the table,” says Ott. “Ford has driven the completely wrong strategy and the employees have to spoon out the soup that the management has in.”
Hoping glimmer on the horizon
The US mother group Ford is successful with commercial vehicles and pick-ups, but they are not manufactured in Germany. The cars focused on Europe are a loss loan for Ford. Only when that changes does the Cologne location have a future – this is clear to everyone involved.
In 2024, the Ford market share was only 3.5 percent in German auto business and thus 1.5 points lower than 2022. The sale of the new electric cars is so far below expectations. Recently, however, there was a slight glimmer of hope: In April, the number of newly approved Ford cars increased by 15.2 percent compared to the same month last year, so the market share rose to 3.9 percent.
dpa
Source: Stern
