The US automobile company Ford wants to cut 3,800 jobs in Europe over the next three years, 2,300 of them in Germany. The plants in Cologne and Aachen are affected here.
At Ford, almost 4,000 employees in Europe are expected to lose their jobs in the coming years on the way to electromobility. With 2,300 jobs, more than half of this is at the European headquarters in Cologne and the research center in Aachen, as Ford explained at a conference call on Tuesday. Ford is aiming for a “smaller, more focused and increasingly electric product portfolio,” explained Germany boss Martin Sander. Ford employs a total of 19,000 people in Germany and around 34,000 across Europe.
The US carmaker has been in Germany for almost 100 years. In August 1925, the Ford Motor Company was entered in the German commercial register for the first time. The Cologne vehicle factory started work in June 1931 and relied heavily on German engineering. The plant in Saarlouis followed in 1970, where the compact Focus model is currently still assembled. It is scheduled to be discontinued in 2025. According to the works council, only around 500 to 700 of the current 4,500 jobs will remain at Ford.
One of 19,000 Ford employees – here at the Cologne plant.
The plant in Cologne has already undergone a massive downsizing. At the end of the day, 14,000 people worked in the cathedral city, three years ago it was a good 18,000.
Ford acts differently than General Motors
Unlike its US rival General Motors, who sold its then deeply in the red subsidiary Opel in 2017 to the later Stellantis subsidiary PSA, Ford is not withdrawing from Germany. Germany boss Sander, who also heads the electronics division, explained that the brand had to reinvent itself in Europe. In view of the high material and energy prices and the increasing competition from China, a reorientation is necessary. Ford wants to keep around 3,400 engineers in Europe. They are to adapt the technology developed in the USA to European customers. IG Metall agreed to the cuts in return for severance pay and the exclusion of redundancies until the end of 2032. “After two tough weeks of negotiations between the parties, an agreement for the future has been reached that includes cost savings for the company as well as securing the German locations for the employees,” the union said. “We are extremely relieved and congratulate the works council on this successful agreement,” said a statement.
Negotiations have been going on for weeks
In Germany, the carmaker wants to part with 1,700 developers by 2025, plus 600 employees in administrative areas, the marketing department and sales. Including 1,300 job cuts in the UK and around 200 more in other European countries, 3,800 jobs will be affected. The announcement was preceded by weeks of negotiations with the trade union.
The US company missed its profit targets last year and wants to undergo a radical cure. CFO John Lawler had announced “very aggressive” measures at the balance sheet presentation to reduce costs in production and in the supply chain. In Europe, the fourth-quarter pretax loss – on flat sales – widened to $400 million, twice the year-ago figure. Experts also see the job cuts in research and development as a result of the cooperation with the Volkswagen Group, from which Ford has the license to build an electric car based on the MEB electrical kit. This saves Ford development costs.