The company wants to axe up to 2,500 jobs in product development and up to 700 in administrative roles, with German locations most affected, IG Metall said. Workers at the U.S. carmaker's Cologne site, which employs about 14,000 people - including 3,800 at a development centre in the Merkenich area - were informed of the plans at works council meetings on Monday.
"That has to grow up a bit more," Brandenburg's Economy Minister Joerg Steinbach said at a podium discussion organised by German union IG Metall on industrial prospects for eastern Germany. The electric vehicle maker was recruiting 200 to 300 people a week even as other companies in the region struggled to find talent, the minister added, with the labour force now totalling around 9,000 people.
The IG Metall is not only conducting a struggle against wage increases. It is actively advocating and implementing wage cuts and cheap labour in an industry where workers were once among the best paid.
Amid the ongoing war in the East, rampant inflation, bankruptcies and job cuts are piling up. Thousands of workers are facing the loss of their jobs and the livelihood of their families.