At the factory meeting at Ford in Saarlouis on July 10 The closure contains important lessons for the working class beyond Ford and the automotive industry Jobs and wages can only be defended if Ford workers join forces with their colleagues in other plants and companies—in independent rank-and-file action committees and against the IG Metall The union and its works council representatives are the ones enforcing plant closures and mass redundancies—with early retirement partial retirement and severance schemes or so-called “transfer companies.” These were also part of the “social contract” that IG Metall presented to the 3,750 Ford employees in Saarland for approval in February around 2,700 workers have signed at least preliminary agreements that regulate the conditions under which they will finally leave the plant The 1,800 jobs at the 11 plants in the Ford supplier park will then also be destroyed only 1,000 employees will remain at Ford itself; 1,050 workers have applied for these 1,000 jobs What will happen to the surplus of 50 colleagues remains to be seen Ford has announced that it will finance these 1,000 jobs until 2032 it is unclear to what extent this commitment will be honoured The entire future of Ford in Europe is in question plastics production for other Ford plants is to be continued Saarlouis is the only Ford plant in the world to have bumper production (injection moulding) and Boron production (hot pressing) The slimmed-down plant will be closed for good in 2032 This is because the pharmaceutical company Vetter will begin building a production facility on the current Ford plant site in 2026 which is expected to employ up to 2,000 people by 2030 It is therefore quite possible that Ford will finally withdraw from Saarland before 2032 Works Council Chairman Thal announced that all “colleagues have a future.” That is one of his many lies he and IG Metall have destroyed the future of many thousands of Ford workers and their families Given the experience of the last five years it is time to take stock and draw the necessary conclusions Ford has been closing entire plants in Europe The works councils and trade unions have always done everything in their power to ensure that resistance to this has come to nothing In the bidding war between the plants in Saarlouis and in Almussafes (Valencia they played the two workforces off against each other and offered management huge wage concessions the details of which have been kept secret to this day When it was announced two years ago that the plant in Saarlouis was to be closed the works council and trade union did everything they could to prevent a serious fight in defence of the plant and the jobs The workforce was systematically demobilised to make the closure possible Toothless protests in well-measured quantities served above all to deflect the anger of the workforce IG Metall and the Saarland state government dictated that the workforce put all their hopes in an investor who supposedly wanted to take over the entire plant Hectic preparations then began for the final announcement of the closure the works council and IG Metall organised short protest strikes in mid-January 2024 in favour of a “social contract,” i.e. The plant closure that has now been initiated and the destruction of thousands of jobs is the result of this set-up that the works council Social Democratic Party (SPD) state government and company have been playing for almost three years IG Metall and its works council reps were only able to push through the closure of the plant because they used mafia-like methods to suppress all opposition The claim that there was no possibility of defending the plant and jobs was false from the outset It was the position of the union apparatchiks who sit on the Ford supervisory board and—just like management—put profits above the rights and interests of the employees which was formed on the initiative of the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) opposed this conspiracy from the outset and presented a perspective in defence of the plant A new political orientation was therefore necessary to resist the blackmail by management and the works council; one based on the common interests of all workers at all sites and opposed to the logic of the capitalist profit system. It is already clear that Ford’s e-mobility targets will not be achieved, just like those of other major manufacturers. The main European and US manufacturers, with the exception of Tesla, are now lagging behind in terms of technology and will find it difficult to catch up. In an interview with the Frankfurter Rundschau, sociologist Klaus Dörre reports rather casually about a conversation with Ford works council members who told him: “We had a BYD [EV] taken apart and had to realise that we don’t understand the technology.” This is why the Asian manufacturers can also offer cheaper vehicles. The electric Ford Explorer, whose production has just started in Cologne, has a base price of €53,500. The basic version of the Fiesta, production of which was discontinued there last summer, costs just over €20,000. The cheapest Focus, which will roll off the production line in Saarlouis next year, costs €32,000 without extras. As a result, there is now a real danger that Ford will withdraw completely from Europe. In Cologne, several thousand jobs are to be lost again, in administration, development and also in production. Ford workers in Cologne, but also in Almussafes, the UK, Romania and Turkey, must draw the necessary conclusions from the betrayal of their colleagues in Saarlouis. Every job must be defended unconditionally. The basis of the struggle must be what workers need to live and not what the capitalists think they can get away with. The myth of a lack of money must be rejected. Hundreds of billions are being spent on armaments, the war in Ukraine and the genocide in Gaza; they must be invested in jobs, wages and social infrastructure. A common struggle in defence of all jobs is necessary and must no longer be postponed. Draw the lessons from the Ford-Saarlouis experience and send a WhatsApp message to the following number: +491633378340 and fill in the form below. saying they benefit from unfair government subsidies.Marcus Wassenberg managing director at Ford's German division singling out Germany for its high labour and energy costs.All the German job cuts would be at Ford's main site in Cologne and account for 24% of the factory's workforce.Reporting by Nick Carey in London and Tom Kaeckenhoff in Cologne; Additional reporting by Christoph Steitz in Frankfurt and Nora Eckert in Detroit; Editing by Mark Potter Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab , opens new tab Browse an unrivalled portfolio of real-time and historical market data and insights from worldwide sources and experts. , opens new tabScreen for heightened risk individual and entities globally to help uncover hidden risks in business relationships and human networks. © 2025 Reuters. All rights reserved Essential digital access to quality FT journalism on any device Complete digital access to quality FT journalism with expert analysis from industry leaders Complete digital access to quality analysis and expert insights complemented with our award-winning Weekend Print edition Terms & Conditions apply Discover all the plans currently available in your country See why over a million readers pay to read the Financial Times The four-year starter for the Tigers and All-SEC First Team member in the 2022-'23 season signed with the SaarLouis Royals of the DBBL in Germany Professional ranks 🐯@hayfrank43 has signed with the SaarLouis Royals in Germany! 🇩🇪 pic.twitter.com/ewvavGASLK Frank ended her illustrious career in Columbia as Missouri's second leading scorer in program history with 2,017 points She also finished second in three-point field goals with 300 points “One of the best shooters ever to play here at the University of Missouri,” Missouri head coach Robin Pingeton said after Frank's last game as a Tiger in March The legacy she’s left behind because of who she is and how she shows up every day is very uncommon and very special The schedule was finalized for No. 7 Missouri's softball's Super Regional series against No. 10 Duke in the NCAA Tournament. You can find all Missouri softball news here Super Regionals in CoMo! #MIZ🐯 pic.twitter.com/Rya1rq2Uzg a four-star power forward in the Class of 2026 announced that he received an offer from Missouri this weekend Go tigers💛🖤!! pic.twitter.com/I5PxAmESAS • NFL insider Daniel Jeramiah believes that former Missouri quarterback Drew Lock has a "really good shot" on winning the New York Giants' starting quarterback job Lock played in four games for the Seattle Seahawks last season throwing for 543 yards and three touchdowns on 48 completions • Former Missouri kicker Harrison Mevis was doing more than just kicking field goals at the Carolina Panthers' rookie mini camp.. The Panthers two rookie/tryout camp kickers.Beggan is here via the IPP, after 13 years with Scotstown GAA in Ireland. Mevis (Missouri) is teaching him how to throw a football. Apparently they’re not allowed to use their hands in that other version of football. pic.twitter.com/gVRr8N4Vsa Just a masterclass by our ace Laurin Krings. #OwnIt #MIZ 🐯🥎 | @LaurinKrings pic.twitter.com/jYLvcyrINu Krings, Walker Lift Missouri to Super Regionals In Extra Inning Thriller - Quentin Corpuel Meet the Transfer: Georgia EDGE Darris Smith - Joey Van Zummeren Meet the Freshman: Williamns Nwaneri - Michael Stamps The content on this site is for entertainment and educational purposes only Betting and gambling content is intended for individuals 21+ and is based on individual commentators' opinions and not that of Sports Illustrated or its affiliates All picks and predictions are suggestions only and not a guarantee of success or profit If you or someone you know has a gambling problem crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER The Chairman of the General Works Council of Ford in Germany has warned of the insolvency of Ford’s German subsidiary and is thus preparing the workforce for the gradual closure of the main plant in Cologne The background to the warning by Gruschka and the IG Metall union is the cancellation of an agreement with the US parent company that had been in place since 2006 to compensate for losses incurred by its subsidiary in Europe the company headquarters has announced a final financial support for Ford Europe totalling €4.4 billion explained that Ford would use the “new capital” to promote the transformation of its business in Europe and strengthen its “competitiveness with a new product range.” However but rather new attacks: “To be successful in Europe in the long term we must continue to simplify our structures he called on the European Union and the German government to do more to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles and reduce costs in order to compete with Chinese rivals The works council and IG Metall will support the “tough decisions,” as they did with the closure of the Ford plant in Saarlouis and enforce them against the workforce The works council is currently negotiating with the company on the conclusion of a so-called “social collective agreement,” i.e Ford plans to cut 4,000 jobs in Europe by 2027 with 2,900 of them at the Cologne plant alone According to broadcaster Westdeutscher Rundfunk the model for this social collective agreement “is likely to be the plant closure in Saarlouis where the last car will roll off the production line at the end of the year and it was possible to negotiate high severance payments for some of the employees.” The Ford workforce in Cologne should be alarmed The start of negotiations on a social collective agreement in Saarlouis signalled the final end for the plant The broadcaster says that there are no signs of hope that production will continue in Cologne “Only marginal numbers of the current expensive and large electric cars are being sold So what exactly is the works council in Cologne currently negotiating head of the shop stewards’ committee at the Ford plant in Niehl called the cancellation of the letter of intent a “very dirty trick.” The plan was to “put pressure on the works council in the worst possible way to get them to agree to the planned change in operations.” There is much to suggest that the IG Metall and its works council reps are already negotiating the closure or at least partial closure of the Cologne plant The works council will claim that the operational change concerns the 2,900 jobs that will be cut in Cologne But is this the “operational change” that Lüdke is talking about Industrial relations law describes various measures that count as a change in operations: the “reduction and closure [or relocation] of the entire operation or significant parts of the operation,” the “merger with other operations or the splitting of operations,” “fundamental changes to the organisation of the operation the purpose of the operation or the operating facilities” and the “introduction of fundamentally new working methods and production processes.” In any case—as can be seen from the statements made by the union representatives—Ford wants to end the exclusion of compulsory redundancies the company would now expose the Cologne site to an acute risk of insolvency according to the union,” says Westdeutscher Rundfunk The exclusion of “compulsory redundancies” is being used by IG Metall to push through the biggest attacks the union used this argument to agree the destruction of 35,000 jobs—more than one in four—and a reduction in real wages of up to 20 percent Gruschka also hints at similar and even greater attacks In an interview with industry weekly Automobilwoche he says that the withdrawal of the letter of intent means that “the Ford Motor Company is withdrawing the insolvency protection of its German subsidiary from the parent company.” He told the press that in view of the low sales figures for electric cars produced in Cologne the question was on the table as to how bills would be paid in future if the US parent company did not guarantee them insolvency and the loss of more than ten thousand jobs would be imminent The works council planned to inform the workforce at a factory meeting Wednesday and has called for a protest meeting outside the Ford premises on Saturday The works council is just as unwilling to defend jobs in Cologne as it is in Saarlouis It sees its role as implementing the attacks demanded by the company The IG Metall representatives around Gruschka are already positioning themselves to prevent effective resistance which can only be successful if conducted internationally The closure of the plant in Saarlouis was achieved not least by pitting workers there against those in Almussafes (Valencia) in Spain 9,000 jobs at Ford and its suppliers have been destroyed; in Almussafes fewer than 3,000 jobs remain out of more than 9,300 we wrote: “While the IG Metall was organising the closure of the Ford plant in Saarlouis it kept the workforce in Cologne quiet with the promise that the investment of two billion euros in the Cologne plant and the switch to pure e-car production would secure their future Now that the plant in Saarlouis has largely been shut down This is why the head of the General Works Council is now trying to divide Ford employees in Germany from the European workforce It is a disadvantage for the German Ford-Werke GmbH that the weak sales of all Ford passenger cars in Europe are booked via its balance sheet while the profitable commercial vehicle business—Ford has been the market leader in Europe here for years—is handled via the books of Ford’s British subsidiary likens the German Ford plants in this constellation to a “bad bank.” The “end of the comprehensive guarantee for the German Ford organisation could lead to a concentration of Ford’s loss-making activities in Europe in German Ford Werke GmbH.” This would be similar to the concept of a bad bank in which all the risky and poorly performing business units are bundled together in one company in order to protect the entire group from the insolvency risk of a subsidiary Romanian or Turkish workers against each other Ford hopes to be able to impose the consequences of trade war on the workforce The all-out economic war that President Donald Trump is escalating is leading to huge attacks on workers all over the world, including Europe and in the US itself. It is being fought on the backs of workers. Trade war will inevitably lead to a shooting war if the international working class does not intervene. That is why the next German government is preparing an armaments programme costing billions IG Metall and its works council reps are lining up behind “their” government as well as “their” corporations on this issue War and massive job destruction are directly linked it is necessary to organise independently—from IG Metall and its works councils as well as from all capitalist parties and their appendages that in one way or another support the insane policy of rearmament and war Send a Whatsapp message to the following number: +491633378340 and fill in the form below to take action now. The expected tariff cost is significantly lower than the $4 billion to $5 billion crosstown rival General Motors estimates, which Ford attributes to its higher mix of U.S.-built vehicles. Ford Spain has announced a new Redundancy Scheme (ERE) at its Almussafes plant in Valencia to cut 1,622 jobs Ford has collaborated with the social-democratic General Union of Workers (UGT) to carry out four redundancy schemes at Almussafes These are the consequences of the bidding war initiated by Ford management in 2021 between the Almussafes plant and the Saarlouis plant in Germany to determine which would produce new electric cars and continue operations beyond 2025 The IG Metall and UGT bureaucracies both pressed workers to accept cuts to jobs the World Socialist Web Site and the Ford Action Committee of rank-and-file workers in Saarlouis explained that the bureaucracies intended for this fratricidal competition to end in plant closures and mass job losses German and Spanish union officials pitted Saarlouis and Almussafes workers against each other The WSWS noted in December 2021: “The concessions extorted in this way are then supposedly intended to ‘secure the site.’ But so far such concessions have only paved the road to plant closures.” The UGT bureaucracy responded to the WSWS’ call to fight back independently from the union bureaucracy with a video on January 24 It stated: “During this last season you will have heard a lot of news about the situation and future of our factory opinions and doubts about our ability to negotiate good agreements and some out of touch with reality [in reference to the WSWS].” The greatest promoters of fake news were in fact the UGT and IG Metall but worked with management to close plants whilst enforcing salary cuts and precarious contracts the final closure of the Saarlouis plant was confirmed leaving only 1,000 workers of the original 7,000 by the end of 2025 1,500 jobs in supporting industries will be lost Ford Germany announced a new cut; several thousand jobs are at stake services and development center located in Cologne-Merkenich Having worked closely with IG Metall to cut jobs is now proceeding with mass layoffs in the Almussafes plant in Valencia despite it “winning” the bidding competition The company also reneged on its promise to develop an electric vehicle by 2027 Ford now says that only a hybrid model will be developed from that year onwards UGT stated that “despite the challenges we still have to overcome and considering the uncertainty we’ve faced in recent months today we can say we bring very good news.” This “good news” translated into the announcement of 1,622 layoffs have raised the alarm that even this contract may not happen Several of them have pointed out that by now Ford should have sent them Requests for Quotation (RFQ) for the production of parts and machinery needed for the new hybrid vehicle and there’s nothing.” Another said: “People are scared All we know is that we’re in for a tough time.” Ford’s latest redundancy scheme again exposes the UGT’s fraudulent promise that working with management to cut salaries would preserve jobs UGT is now accepting job losses without even a token protest or a strike their only proposal was to carry out job cuts with the same conditions as the previous ones via early retirement and voluntary redundancies UGT claims that improving severance pay or obtaining early retirement will solve workers’ problems are lies What is being proposed is a devastating assault on the industrial and social fabric of Valencia province But UGT Ford spokesman Carlos Faubel is proposing “social peace.” Last week he said that from now on in negotiations and in the possibilities of solving this in a positive way for everyone.” He added “we are convinced the company will have no problem in showing its availability and the role it plays so all this comes to fruition and we maintain social peace and the vehicle planned for 2027 is a success.” which workers in Ford and other industries have seen over and over again management said it had replied to UGT’s request to re-hire 1,000 of those laid off when the production of the new vehicle might begin Ford’s redundancy plan reveals critical lessons to be assimilated by workers in Ford Valencia and elsewhere tried to divide workers along national lines suppress the class struggle and imposing management’s diktat Ford Valencia and UGT acted in Almussafes just as IG Metall and Ford Germany acted in Saarlouis They facilitated layoffs by deceiving workers to block strikes and keep production running until the plant closure which has happened in Saarlouis and increasingly threatens in Almussafes There is no nationalist perspective to win such struggles Meanwhile the unions tie workers to a national framework then pit workers in one country against another to offer the most “competitive” conditions for the automakers Mass struggles have erupted across the auto industry in Europe and North America over the past two years but the unions worked together to keep contract struggles divided along national lines the Spanish bourgeoisie relies on pseudo-left parties like Sumar to subordinate workers to a nationalist Deputy Prime Minister and Labor Minister Yolanda Díaz, who recently resigned as Sumar’s leader after its debacle in the European elections issued a brief statement: “We are witnessing today an ERE [Redundancy Plan] at Ford by a company that has significant profits.” However she quickly washed her hands of the situation cynically claiming this “is not within the competency of the Ministry of Labor.” Díaz bears direct political responsibility for what is happening. In 2020, she was appointed Labor Minister. Her flagship measure was a labor reform continuing the most reactionary elements of the one approved in 2012 by the right-wing Popular Party This reform allows companies like Ford to impose layoffs through EREs without incurring losses or requiring authorization from the Labor Ministry Spain’s PSOE-Sumar government has also aggressively lobbied to join the US-led trade war against Chinese exports of electrical vehicles (EVs). These tariffs could go as high as 48 percent. It exposes Sumar’s support for the US-EU policy aiming to strangle and subjugate China, if necessary through war. Workers at Ford Almussafes cannot tie their future to pseudo-lefts like Díaz or the UGT bureaucracy. Time is running out to prevent the closure of the Almussafes plant, as happened in Saarlouis. To prevent this, workers must organize across national borders, independently and against their works councils, forming rank-and-file committees democratically controlled by the workers themselves. The World Socialist Web Site urges workers in Valencia to oppose the UGT’s treachery and build the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC) to organize the fightback against Ford. , opens new tab was one of 15 investors interested in taking over the Ford site in Saarlouis after it stops producing its current model Writing by Miranda Murray; editing by Matthias Williams the works council and IG Metall union invited the remaining 3,750 employees at the soon-to-close Ford Saarlouis plant to a factory meeting with only one item on the agenda: the vote on a so-called “social contract” the union bureaucracy had negotiated Far from preventing the closure of the plant the agreement sanctions the shutdown of the factory which has been a critical source of employment in the southwest German region At the time Ford announced the closure of the plant more than 6,000 employees worked at the Saarlouis plant and adjacent supplier companies The agreement chiefly involves redundacy packages along with hollow promises that some workers will remain employed in auxillary positions after the factory stops car production titled “Saarlouis must live!—Gigantic approval of 93.28 percent.” Union officials “Our fight over the past months and years has paid off.” There is little doubt that the suppression of any strike action to stop the closure of the plant has “paid off” well for union and works council officials Auto production will be phased out by the end of November 2025 and some 5,000 jobs will be lost Ford is only “guaranteeing” 1,000 jobs through 2032 the result of the “fight” by the works council and IG Metall is that Ford Saarlouis is dead the World Socialist Web Site and the Ford Action Committee warned that this would be the outcome of the bidding war between IG Metall and the General Union of Workers (UGT) over where Ford would locate electric vehicle production The union bureaucracies played off workers in Saarlouis and Almussafes against each other and offered management huge wage concessions the details of which have been concealed to this day The Ford Action Committee explained that jobs would not be defended by IG Metall and its works council but only through a rank-and-file rebellion against the bureaucrats that stand on the side of the corporation After Ford announced that Saarlouis would be closed the works council and IG Metall systematically demobilised the workforce to make the closure possible sought to placate them and occasionally ordered them to the gates for toothless protests in limited numbers to allow workers to blow off steam the IG Metall and Saarland state executive strung the workforce along with promises of an “investor” who supposedly wanted to take over the entire plant Everyone involved kept quiet about who the supposed investor was broadcaster Saarländischer Rundfunk has revealed that the Chinese state-owned company Chery Automobile was the major investor Chery officials have not denied the report the company and the works council announced that the secretive investor had pulled out with Ford Germany boss Martin Sander saying talks collapsed after an “in-depth feasibility study and intensive negotiations,” involving the Saarland state government In the run-up to the final closure announcement the works council and IG Metall organised short strikes in mid-January ostensibly to improve the terms of the “social contract.” In reality the phony strikes were the final nail in the coffin The closure of the historic factory is the result of the rigged game the works council Social Democratic (SPD) state government and company officials have played against rank-and-file workers for over two years To ensure the ratification of their “social contract,” these forces sought to deceive workers by holding a “strike ballot.” But the only alternatives were an indefinite strike which workers knew the works council and union would sabotage or the acceptance of a deal whose details were concealed from workers union officials declared that 75 percent of the workforce would have to vote against it for the proposal to be defeated The works council and IG Metall were reportedly unsure if this shotgun vote would work Then suddenly they announced that it had been approved by over 93 percent of the workforce Most workers could not believe the official results But IG Metall has made it impossible to check the validity of the vote There was no list of those authorised to vote to compare with the actual votes cast Anyone with an authorisation notice issued by the IG Metall and sent by post was allowed to vote There was no rank-and-file oversight to determine if votes were valid or if someone voted multiple times The ballot boxes were not publicly checked beforehand Only officials from the works council knew what was in them Workers have long accused IG Metall and works council officials of vote fraud in internal elections and contract votes The large “yes” vote last Thursday is not particularly different from the last works council election results votes in the Stalinist former East Germany where the hated ruling party always received an overwhelming majority Even if a majority of workers voted for the deal it was not an endorsement of the IG Metall and its rotten deal After two years of constant fears over their fate it is possible a majority of workers reluctantly voted for the deal to “end the horror” rather than prolong it especially since IG Metall and works council officials demonstrated they would do nothing to stop the plant closure Workers reported that the atmosphere at the factory meeting was like a funeral They felt forced—by the trade union and works council—to rubber-stamp their own job losses And they did so without knowing exactly what they were voting on Workers will only find out what the specific individual consequences will be for them later this month They will either receive a redundancy offer or be told if they are being considered for one of the remaining 1,000 jobs after 2025 Not many more than these jobs will be created in the long term union and SPD talk about “replacement jobs” and new investors This became clear immediately after the result of the vote was announced State Minister of Economic Affairs Jürgen Barke immediately presented journalists with grand plans for the Ford plant and the entire 120-hectare site with its huge halls and areas it was clear these were just castles in the air a 10-hectare “winter car park” at the plant facility is supposed to be redeveloped cars produced in winter have been parked there before being delivered to dealers From 2026 on—by which time the plant will already be closed—a further 15 hectares are to be redeveloped and built on The aim is to attract smaller companies with 100 to 300 employees each it remains to be seen how many companies will actually settle there letters of intent have been received from some companies their names are not being mentioned nor is there any information of the wages and conditions workers will face But one thing is clear: in 2026—apart from the site where Ford is financing 1,000 jobs—tens of hectares of the 120-hectare site will lie empty Only one-fifth—25 hectares in total—will be “redeveloped.” The supposed replacement jobs will be a long time coming—if they come at all SPD Minister Barke was just as euphoric as IG Metall and works council chairman Thal the social contract was “a liberating blow,” Barke claimed Fundamental lessons must be learned from the experiences of the last two years, both at Ford and in the automotive industry. Before the vote, the WSWS made it clear: “There is no individual way out of the crisis. A common struggle in defence of all jobs is necessary and can no longer be postponed. That is why the establishment of the independent action committee is so important.” The redundancies and plant closure plans at Ford are just the beginning, the article noted. “A job massacre is unfolding in the auto industry the likes of which the sector has not seen since the Second World War.” Major class struggles were inevitable, “which will go far beyond the current warning strikes and break through the control of the trade union apparatus.” Workers at Bosch, Continental, ZF, BASF and many other companies are facing an escalating wave of job cuts, along with workers across the world, and a unified fight is necessary. But this fight must be organized independently of and in opposition to the works council reps and trade union bureaucrats, and coordinated across borders through the expansion of the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC). Workers at Ford, the auto industry and beyond should take concrete action to set up rank-and-file action committees. To contact the Ford Action Committee, send a WhatsApp message to the following number: +491633378340 or fill out the following form! Friederike Heine; Writing by Matthias Williams; Editing by Friederike Heine Autos correspondent in Germany, covering the industry's transition to electric vehicles. Previously reported on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the retail sector in South Asia, China and Europe, and wider general news. Formerly at YouGov and Economy, a charity working to produce accessible economics coverage. IG Metall union officials and works council members at the Ford Saarlouis industrial park organised another decisive step towards the closure of the manufacturing site in western Germany They blackmailed the workforce of the supplier companies into agreeing to so-called social collective agreements and IG Metall Völklingen set the course for this in February With the acceptance of the “social” collective agreement for the Ford plant in Saarlouis it was clear that the approximately 1,800 employees of the 11 plants in the Ford Industrial Supplier Park Lear and Rhenus were compelled to agree to the sell-off by a large majority the social collective agreement had already been agreed two weeks earlier IG Metall writes: “Those affected have recognised that the companies were not willing to relocate jobs and replacement products to Saarlouis.” That is nonsense Those affected have known for at least two years that the Ford corporation and its suppliers were determined to shut down the entire plant in Saarlouis But the IG Metall and its works council reps have repeatedly stalled them with false promises in order to prevent industrial action against the cuts Ford has been in the process of closing or reorganising entire plants in Europe Russia and India for four years in order to increase profits at the expense of the workforce works council representatives and the IG Metall have done everything in their power for years to ensure that resistance to this has come to nothing the rank-and-file Ford Action Committee warned: “The declared aim of the works council and IG Metall is for a ‘social collective agreement’ to force the regulated closure of the plant on us.” This has been fully confirmed The union has been using attrition tactics for years culminating in the last six-day “industrial action” at the supplier park The strike has shown that workers do not lack willingness to fight IG Metall members voted overwhelmingly in favour of an indefinite strike in a ballot at all plants it was supported practically 100 percent of the time a motorcade and several meetings were held in the largest I-Park hall The strike had an immediate impact on production of the Focus model which is scheduled to continue at the Ford plant until November 2025 interior fittings and dashboards for this model production at the main Ford plant came to a standstill for six days But IG Metall did not take industrial action in defence of jobs; it was solely concerned with pushing through severance payments and determining the specifics of the decided closure That is why it did not call on workers at the Ford plant to join in and extend the struggle it had already urged them to accept a social collective agreement “As they already don’t want to give us any jobs or a future,” wrote IG Metall chief negotiator Ralf Cavelius and Uwe Zabel from the union’s central district “the only option left here is the second-best solution of a social collective agreement.” They once again emphasised the union’s compliant stance: “If the companies don’t want it there’s nothing we can do.” They reduce the workforce to supplicants dependent on the mercy of the corporations The IG Metall works council members at Ford Saarlouis They are not willing to fight for jobs but support the company in its attacks on the workforce they supported the internecine bidding competition between the Ford plants in Saarlouis and Almussafes in Spain Then they suppressed resistance out of supposed consideration for an alleged investor that would emerge the workforce does not know what secret agreements they made with the plant management The union brought in Uwe Zabel from the Frankfurt IG Metall headquarters specifically to suppress resistance in the supplier park After holding several positions in northern Germany he is now IG Metall secretary in the “Joint Development Project Network Future,” with which the union aims to gain new members in companies without collective bargaining agreements Zabel is a master at “looking left and turning right.” In Saarlouis he organised non-stop protests and strike meetings during the six days of industrial action and delivered incendiary speeches against Ford—only to ultimately work alongside plant management and the works council to ensure that workers agreed to the social collective agreements These agreements provide for severance payments of 1.5 gross monthly salaries per year of employment for permanent employees as well as 12 months of continued employment in a so-called “transfer company” (really just an onward transmission mechanism to the unemployment lines) This means that workers with years of seniority can expect severance payments of around €100,000 But what will happen to the temporary and agency workers What about the many people indirectly affected in the region even the best severance payments cannot compensate for the loss of a permanent job With the acceptance of the social collective agreements only one thing is certain: the lights will go out at Ford production in Saarlouis at the end of November 2025 and what will happen to the 1,000 employees who are supposed to continue working until 2032 at the latest is written in the stars almost 7,000 jobs will be destroyed within 10 years (from 2022 to 2032 at the latest) in the state capital Saarlouis alone The Ford Action Committee is therefore calling on workers in Saarlouis to join forces with their brothers and sisters in other threatened plants to take up the fight themselves it wrote: “Ford will not be able to close a single plant if we unite internationally and lead the fight together.” During the vote at the Ford plant four weeks ago the action committee called on workers to vote against the social collective agreement and the plant closure to express no confidence in the works council and IG Metall and to take the fight for jobs into their own hands: A joint fight in defence of all jobs is necessary and must no longer be postponed The claim that severance pay is a substitute for a job is false Severance pay has never prevented a jobs massacre (...) It has always been the path to social devastation and the destruction of the future of the next generation An unparalleled jobs massacre is unfolding throughout the automotive and supplier industry the introduction of artificial intelligence or international competition The ruthless attack on all the gains of the working class has a deeper reason: it is part of a class war that goes hand in hand with the return to war and militarism in foreign policy the struggle for jobs can no longer be left to IG Metall and the works council reps which act as Ford’s executive organs and company police The Ford Action Committee insists that every job must be defended unconditionally It fights for the international unity of the working class to defend jobs The social interests of workers must take precedence over the profit interests of the capitalists We say: Draw the lessons from the Ford-Saarlouis experience and join the Ford Action Committee All contacts will be treated confidentially Send a Whatsapp message to +491633378340 and fill in the following form When it comes to closing down the Ford plant in Saarlouis on behalf of the company’s top management and its shareholders and leading the workers around by the nose no trick is too shabby for the works council led by Markus Thal and the IG Metall union exactly one year to the day after workers there had learned that their plant would be closed by 2025 at the latest the workforce was once again brushed off and deceived by Thal and management the 4,500 workers at the plant have been kept in the dark about their future When managing director Martin Sander again asked for their “patience” because he could not yet name an investor that would continue running the plant after 2025 But Thal and his works council team had made preparations to prevent the meeting from escalating Shop stewards had been told to boo Sander mercilessly and not let him get a word in edgewise Thal then used the deafening noise and tumult as an opportunity to break off the meeting and send employees home or back to work the whole process was a set-up to prevent workers from taking a decision to really fight for their future Thal had announced at the meeting that he would hold a strike ballot a week later (Wednesday in order to force through a “social collective agreement.” This is meant to regulate the liquidation of the factory and determine how much severance pay workers would receive On Tuesday afternoon, about 12 hours before the start of the ballot, Thal called everything off again. In a video message from the IG Metall office in the German city of Völklingen “Now there is movement on the matter.” Last week together with the IG Metall negotiating group he had “for the first time” been given an insight into “drafts of possible preliminary agreements.” The union and the works council had assessed these as “quite positive.” possible investors and the state government were currently taking place “without interruption around the globe at all hours.” “And it’s going in the right direction it’s about more jobs for us here at the site in Saarlouis,” Thal said Thal called for another factory meeting on Friday where he expected “further resilient results” from the company’s top management This has been confirmed by Lars Desgranges the senior IG Metall Völklingen representative: “We expect an LoI to be signed by then.” All the parties involved are keeping quiet about the investors who want to declare their non-binding intention to operate on the factory site But it is no secret that one of the last two interested parties for the factory site was the Chinese group BYD (Build Your Dreams) which also manufactures cars and is interested in gaining a foothold in Europe Chinese manufacturers are far ahead of European ones BYD was therefore a direct rival of volume auto producers like Ford and Volkswagen Ford’s top boss Jim Farley had only recently said at a financial meeting in the USA that his main competition was “not Toyota or General Motors,” but the Chinese carmakers only a group of smaller Chinese carmakers are said to be interested in the Ford site in Saarlouis Even if a letter of intent were to lead to a preliminary agreement and then a contract there are above all the US war preparations against China “A deal with a Chinese investor is likely to put Berlin on the spot,” writes Handelsblatt “as the German government around Chancellor Olaf Scholz (Social Democrat SPD) is currently doing a lot to reduce economic dependence on the People’s Republic [of China] and thus make supply chains here more resilient.” It is far from certain that the end result will not be the sale of the factory site and the destruction of the production facility an option which has occasionally been brought into play That it has come to this is the responsibility of IG Metall and its works council under Thal IG Metall and its workplace “representatives” organise one disaster after another for the workforces They elaborate the mechanisms and instruments with which the workers are attacked in order to enrich the shareholders Thal took over as works council chair in Saarlouis in 2019 he has pushed through the reduction of almost 3,000 jobs always with the argument that this would secure competitiveness and thus the production location In the ruinous bidding war between the Ford plants in Saarlouis and Almussafes (Valencia) which the trade unions and their works councils in Germany and Spain had conducted in 2021 and 2022 which pays out billions to its shareholders every year to cut the wages of all 22,000 workers in its German plants by 18 percent The Saarland state government under the SPD offered billions in subsidies But the Spanish trade union UGT and its factory representatives had offered even greater attacks on jobs and wages and the Spanish regional government even higher subsidies wages are also being slashed at the Almussafes plant and more than 1,140 jobs are being cut from the previous total of around 6,000 The UGT is just as merciless in acting against opposition within the factory as the IG Metall in Saarlouis In addition to the 4,600 jobs in Saarlouis another 2,300 are being destroyed in other plants in Germany especially in the development sites in Cologne and Aachen The workforce in Saarlouis has been kept in the dark and lied to by Ford and the works council for a year Ford promised to table a “future concept”10 times and has still not presented it Thal has announced a “fight” if a concept were not presented the next time he is only begging for “resilience” and declarations of intent Only Thal knows how resilient Ford’s promise to maintain 1,000 jobs at the site until 2032 is It is likely to be just as resilient as the declaration of intent that Thal and Sander want to present on Friday is the fact that Thal is negotiating piecemeal job cuts Eighty employees are leaving the company via partial retirement with currently 1,300 employees at seven companies IG Metall started negotiations for a “social collective agreement” at the beginning of June The jobs are to be eliminated with the help of low severance payments a “transfer company” and a bridging model for older workers Since its inception, the Ford Action Committee has warned against precisely such developments. In its first appeal in January 2022 shortly after Thal and IG Metall had made their cuts offer to Ford HQ in Germany as part of the bidding war with the Spanish plant All our concessions in the past and all the concessions already made at all Ford locations count for nothing today We reject the blackmail and brutal competition being instigated between us and workers at other plants Playing one off against the other leads to disaster Now this disaster is becoming more and more real The works council and the IG Metall have devoted themselves lock stock and barrel to defending the interests of the corporation and its owners They are on the other side of the barricade Their ranting about “struggle” and “tough confrontations” is a sham The only “struggle” that Thal and his fellow officials are waging is to stop workers from really fighting and to allow the factory to be closed down Anyone who does not want to resign themselves to being sold out by Thal Gruschka and the other corporate stooges in the works council and IG Metall should join the Ford Action Committee a rank-and-file organisation of militant workers It has sufficiently proven its strength in terms of its analysis and perspective Now it has to be strengthened by Ford workers themselves Contact the action committee via Whatsapp message at +491633378340 The result has come that many workers had feared Ford Motor Company officially announced its decision to build its next generation of electric vehicles in Almussafes plus around 1,500 workers in the adjacent supplier park face redundancy when production of the Ford Focus ceases at the end of 2025 At the same time it was made clear to the 6,000 workers in Spain that they will also suffer as a result of the decision: with wage cuts were angrier with the union and the hypocritical charade by works council Chairman Markus Thal than with the company announcement “This is nothing but lies and deception,” one worker declared directly after the works meeting Last September the company announced it would close either the German plant in Saarlouis or the Spanish factory in Almussafes near Valencia At that time the WSWS warned that the works councils of both plants were outbidding one another with offers to make cuts thereby “trying to prove to the company board that their respective site could produce more profitably than the other.” The losers would be Ford employees in both plants The works councils in Germany are now pretending they fought to keep the plant open cheated and fooled,” claimed Saarlouis works council Chairman Thal The works councils refer to a “stitch-up” and “sham procedure.” it was a “stitch-up,” but the works council and the IG Metall union were and are part of the game The works council had sent out notice of the works meeting Wednesday to inform workers about the “status of the bidding competition” more than two weeks ago the works council was informed that the company had decided in favour of the Spanish plant—but nobody believes this The works council’s notices informed the workforce they should prepare for an extended meeting Wednesday beginning at 2:00 p.m “depending on the decision.” It is clear the works council already knew the decision While the works meeting was still in progress flyers were distributed under the heading “breach of promise,” calling for a demonstration and rally the police and the public order officials were informed about the action and were waiting for workers when they left the factory “You can’t organise and do something like this in a quarter of an hour,” said one Ford worker The version of the bidding process put forward by IG Metall and the works council at the meeting the protest rally and in leaflets prepared beforehand can only be described as bold-faced lies signed by its chairmen Benjamin Gruschka and Thal claims in its very first sentence that the works council had only been informed on the same day the pair declared they had “roundly” condemned the bidding competition they had themselves spent months organising They even had the nerve to claim they had tried to act in concert with their Spanish colleagues they did everything they could to ensure the closure of the Spanish plant by offering job and wage cuts and subsidies in Germany instead of organising a common struggle against Ford It was this spineless and submissive attitude oriented solely towards the company’s profits that encouraged management to demand even more cuts in Spain and wind up production in Saarlouis The works council is now boasting it would have offered up wage cuts not only in Saarlouis but in all of Ford’s German plants According to the twisted thinking of the union bureaucrats allowing workers in other factories to suffer in the bidding competition amounts to a “declaration of solidarity.” Instead of a joint struggle the joint renunciation of jobs and livelihoods is the new type of solidarity IG Metall is trying to impose are now huffing and puffing about the fact that the company failed to take into account the cuts the union had organised and that Valencia was unfairly awarded the new contract Their cries of “scandal,” “breach of promise” or “fraud” are akin to the pickpocket who shouts “Stop thief!” They themselves organised the bidding process hid it from workers and sabotaged any serious struggle to defend jobs the works council and the unions reject any struggle to keep the plant open and are offering their services to Ford management to organise the smooth liquidation of the factory Employees were due to be informed about further plans on Thursday “We will now have to work on alternatives for the Saarlouis plant.” This was the most important task for the coming weeks and months will do that just as intensively as we have done in the last few months.” At Wednesday’s press conference Thal announced he planned to negotiate social plans and tariffs He said that workers may strike to achieve these ends strikes for more favourable redundancy payments instead of defending the factory Wednesday’s rally gave a foretaste of the toothless protests the union now plans to organise The workers were given whistles to blow and let off steam and the protest was deliberately organised far away from the factory gates to prevent workers from contemplating occupying a gate or even the plant and actually going on strike Instead they were told that after 2025 the production of a model would end and were then carted off to a demonstration and rally where once again Thal and another representative of IG Metall feigned their surprise and anger just as they had done prior to the factory meeting Workers must draw the lessons from the past few years and especially the last six months If the workforce in Saarlouis allows the works councils and IG Metall to continue where they have now left off The gradual closure of the plant will impact the entire region leading to a rapid decline in wages and prospects Workers have reported that when they apply for alternative jobs such as 12 euros an hour working in logistics This is the future the works council is organising The workforce in Saarlouis should take an example from their Ford colleagues in India They are on strike and occupying the gates an action and strike committee should be set up to prepare militant measures to defend the factory contact must be made immediately with workers in India Contact the Ford Action Committee: send a Whatsapp message to the following number: +491633378340 Get in touch with the Ford Action Committee! All contacts will be kept absolutely confidential. Write a Whatsapp message to +491633378340 or click here to fill out the form below Ford’s plant in the German city of Saarlouis resembles a slave market the union IG Metall and the state government have been haggling behind closed doors over the fate of 6,000 workers and their families as if they were a commodity up for sale First they played off the workforce in Saarlouis against their colleagues in Valencia then they tried to palm off the workforce with a possible investor kept so secret his or its name has remained undisclosed the company and its works council announced that the secretive investor had backed out According to Ford Germany boss Martin Sander after an “in-depth feasibility study and intensive negotiations,” also involving the Saarland state government the investor had decided not to continue negotiations “He did not tell us his motives and we have to respect that.” Some 6,000 jobs—4,500 at the Ford plant and 1,500 in the adjacent supplier park—are now on the line Ford has indicated it will retain just 1,000 workers in a new technology park how much workers will be paid or whether the jobs will ever exist is completely unclear The works council has already agreed to the job massacre “We will now do what we are there for,” said works council chair Markus Thal “We will negotiate conditions for workers losing their jobs.” A works council information sheet distributed on Thursday last week during the factory meeting stated: “It’s all about conditions for the loss of the jobs of 2,850 workers We now have to face the possible new reality.” Negotiations on a social agreement are to start as early as October 9 On the agenda is not the preservation of jobs “So this step is now about negotiating the conditions for the possible job loss,” the works council info-sheet reads The works council drones on that: “Ford still has a social responsibility and we will hold them accountable!” In the first place to pay up!” The works council even threatens “possible warning strikes” and “indefinite legal industrial action”—not to defend jobs however Anyone who has followed the activities of the Ford works council and IG Metall over the past few years knows what to make of such threats The union and its work council are quite prepared to stab the workforce in the back as long as their own privileges and salaries are preserved The works council and IG Metall are doing everything to prevent a real struggle to defend the jobs This was also the purpose of the proposal that workers could stay home for two days (with pay) after the works meeting What was presented by the works council as a concession by the company in reality served to ensure that angry workers stay out of the factory They were denied any opportunity to meet together and discuss plans for real industrial action The works council has so far relied on secret negotiations with the company and will continue to do so The works council was closely involved in the negotiations with the mysterious investor behind the backs of the workforce Ford negotiated “future working conditions with the investor” and the works council “In 15 rounds of negotiations over the plant holiday we negotiated in the past weeks a good concept for future working conditions.” The refusal of the investor then hit the works council “completely unprepared and absolutely surprised.” the works council had already promised the company wage cuts of 18 percent and unpaid overtime amounting to 20 days a year in all German Ford plants Now it has apparently offered the investor such lucrative working conditions that it was “totally surprised” when the investor turned down the offer the company and the works council are still hiding the identity of the investor which is usually well-informed on economic issues wrote that according to its sources “it is one of the two leading Chinese electronics manufacturers This raises further questions about the deal falling through Did the German government veto a deal in order to prevent Chinese investment in Germany as part of its preparations for war against China Or did Ford’s headquarters in Detroit intervene bearing in mind the company has little interest in strengthening the hand of its Chinese competitors in the highly competitive global market for EVs which has close ties to the state government and IG Metall The investor is “closely linked to the car industry” and wants to “conquer the German and European market using the Saarlouis site if possible,” it reported The problem was above all “the relationship between Ford and the new investor.” There was still no “concrete offer about conditions with which Ford is willing to participate in a transfer of the Ford factory into the hands of the investor.” The paper wrote that the works council IG Metall and Economics Minister Jürgen Barke (SPD) were furious about this development The state government had in the meantime made an “attractive offer” to the investor in an attempt to keep it on board Barke and Ford representatives flew to China at the weekend for further talks with the investor The financial offer of the state government goes “far beyond our limits,” the Saarbrücken newspaper quotes Economics Minister Barke There is talk of “a financial participation in the order of a medium three-digit million amount.” This would correspond to about one tenth of the annual budget of the highly indebted state of Saarland and would entail further cuts in social spending The Ford workforce would also have to make further sacrifices The construction of a new production site by an Asian car manufacturer would devour “huge sums of money,” writes the Saarbrücker Zeitung No doubt the works council and IG Metall agree and will offer further concessions The independent Ford Action Committee has long since warned that there is no red line the works council and IG Metall would not cross They do not represent the interests of the workforce but rather they defend the profit margins of the corporation working closely with top management and the government to achieve this end The action committee has rejected the bidding competition with Valencia and proposed joint action with the colleagues in Almussafes It has called for the withdrawal of the mandate of the works council and insisted that jobs must not be sacrificed to the greed of the group and its shareholders It advocates industrial action to defend every job and demands the disclosure of the identity of the investor and all secret agreements made The interests of workers must take precedence over the interests of the capitalists The expected tariff cost is significantly lower than the $4 billion to $5 billion crosstown rival General Motors estimates which Ford attributes to its higher mix of U.S.-built vehicles Ford is negotiating with BYD about a potential sale of its vehicle plant in Saarlouis A Ford delegation will soon travel to China to negotiate This is what the Wall Street Journal has heard from insiders there are apparently around 15 interested parties for the plant although not all of them come from the car industry Even if BYD’s interest has not been confirmed by the company, a takeover of the Ford plant would certainly fit the Chinese manufacturer’s strategy: BYD is planning at least one production facility for electric cars in Europe. In December BYD manager Stella Li told Bloomberg that they were evaluating the best location “to support BYD’s rapid ramp-up” it was not confirmed at the time whether the Chinese manufacturer would build a new plant or take over an existing factory BYD initially launched three electric vehicle models in some European countries at the end of 2022, and two more series could follow in the course of 2023 – the Seal electric mid-size sedan and possibly also the Dolphin electric compact car Like the first three European models (the Atto 3 compact SUV the Han large sedan and the Tang large SUV) all BYD electric cars offered in Europe are currently still built in China Ford had decided last year to manufacture their next-generation vehicle architecture in Valencia, Spain Ford currently produces the Focus series with combustion engines in Saarlouis As Ford has not yet confirmed a new model for the plant and wants to reduce its production capacity in Europe Separate from the reports surrounding Saarlouis Ford confirmed that it plans to decide by mid-February how many jobs it will cut in Europe it emerged from works council circles that up to 3,200 jobs are to be cut in Cologne alone including in the European development department I agree with the Privacy policy electrive has been following the development of electric mobility with journalistic passion and expertise since 2013 we offer comprehensive coverage of the highest quality — as a central platform for the rapid development of this technology IG Metall and the company works council at the Ford plant in Saarlouis called for brief “warning strikes” to be held in front of the factory gate Another warning strike took place last Friday To make clear: the limited strikes are an integral part of the plan for the closure of the factory that the works council headed by Markus Thal and IG Metall is implementing on behalf of the company The aim is to prepare the plant’s remaining 3,850 employees for imminent offers of menial alternative jobs and low severance payments Immediately after a supposedly serious investor backed out in October last year Thal and his works council started negotiations on conditions for those workers to be made redundant Ford had previously promised to finance 1,000 jobs until 2032 with Ford management and the works council sitting together for over three months to negotiate the conditions under which at least 2,850 Ford employees would be made redundant Now Thal claims to have realised that the negotiations are “going in the wrong direction.” Allegedly Ford does not want to pay the often long-serving employees more than has already been agreed in the company’s existing “voluntary programme.” The works council wants to avoid an outcry and protests by offering the carrot of slightly higher severance payments Thal explains this quite openly: “The offer presented so far in the social contract bargaining .. is nowhere near enough to achieve a peaceful solution at the site.” Thal’s priority is a “peaceful solution,” i.e. the closure of the plant—preferably without a squeak from the workforce The extension of production until the end of 2025 will probably also serve this goal with the works council and management currently planning to reduce daily production from 600 vehicles to 520 from April and thus switch to single-shift operation but rather from a notice posted in a nearby supplier plant This postponement would push back the final plant closure by a few months during which time employees would be gradually eased out of the factory The works council will also use the question of who will receive one of the 1,000 guaranteed jobs to divide the workforce Colleagues who dare to rebel will be put under pressure Ford boss Martin Sander revealed to the Kölner Stadtanzeiger newspaper that the 1,000 jobs are not located in the auto industry and possibly not even in an industrial company He confirmed that there would not be a “key investor” from the auto industry Ford is endeavouring to “attract companies from other industries to the site in order to create as many jobs as possible.” this means that 1,000 Ford employees will be offered jobs at companies with which Ford has possibly reached or will reach an agreement There are rumours among the workforce that an agreement with a Chinese company will be announced soon when it is announced in the next few weeks which companies will be taking over key parts of the plant many of the remaining 2,850 Ford workers and the 1,500 employed in other companies in the neighbouring supplier estate will be left empty-handed IG Metall and the works council under Thal know these details but are saying nothing This is because Thal and his representative on the works council were regularly informed about the status of negotiations by the so-called task force Shortly after a major investor backed out in October last year plant manager Sarah Gielen announced she would be leaving at the end of 2023 who was previously the chairman of the task force The company human resources manager had already been replaced by task force member Roman Lauer Now these people are sitting together to negotiate the terms of the social contract What this conspiratorial group has already decided first in the task force and now in the latest negotiations The most important lesson from the past two years goes far beyond Ford: the fight to defend jobs must be directed against the company and its trade union and works council apparatus IG Metall and the works council are lined up totally with the other side the Ford General Works Council and IG Metall jointly entered the bidding competition against the workers at the Ford plant in Almussafes (Valencia they have lied to and deceived the workforce Behind the backs of the more than 4,600 employees at the time—down from 7,000—they initially offered the Ford Group management huge wage cuts and job losses as well as billions in subsidies along with the SPD (Social Democrats) state government of Saarland All 22,000 employees in all Ford plants in Germany were to receive 18 percent less pay and work an additional 20 days a year—without pay The investor was to receive up to an additional 5 billion euros in taxpayers’ money In its first statement almost exactly two years ago the rank-and-file Ford Action Committee took a clear stance on the bidding competition and warned: “We reject the blackmail and brutal competition between us and between our sites as a matter of principle Playing off against one another will only lead to disaster.” When Ford announced in June 2022 that the plant in Saarlouis had lost the competition with other plants and would be closed IGM and the works council suppressed calls for industrial action and encouraged hopes that a new investor would step in and continue to run the plant only 3,850 people are still employed at the plant in Saarlouis and around 1,500 in neighbouring companies in the supplier estate This total of more than 5,300 jobs at Ford and its suppliers is now in acute danger If the IG Metall works council under Thal is not finally countered the UAW (United Auto Workers) union enforced a miserable contract on car workers—including colleagues at Ford—in its last wage negotiations The only reason there was no rebellion against the contract was because promises were made to the preserve jobs and the hiring of temporary workers Now the temporary workers are being made redundant and a rebellion is developing against the UAW and its false promises Action committees are preparing a struggle miserable working conditions and low wages a new wave of attacks is on the horizon at VW tire manufacturers and many other smaller companies The workers at Ford in Saarlouis must unite with these colleagues worldwide through the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees Become active and held build the Ford Action Committee Ford will cut 3,500 jobs at its plant in Saarlouis after reaching an agreement with German union IG Metall The Saarlouis site currently builds the Ford Focus but the carmaker plans to kill off the iconic hatchback in 2025 as announced in mid-2022 The factory had been considered as a potential site for the firm’s next-generation of EVs but Ford ultimately opted to build these vehicles at its plant in Valencia leaving the German plant without a single model to produce Speaking on the matter earlier this week, IG Metall announced that approximately 1,000 jobs would be retained at Saarlouis after 2025, although it is not yet clear what positions these employees will hold. The union added there would be no forced layoffs until 2032. In addition, employees will be able to leave early with a well-funded severance deal, Auto News Europe reports “We could not achieve the best solution so we decided to make do with the second-best option: to make job cuts as expensive as possible for Ford,” district manager of IG Metall Mitte Joerg Koehlinger said Read: Ford May Have Botched Another Recall, This Time With The 2012-2018 Focus The long-term future of the Saarlouis plant remains unclear. Last year it was reported that a handful of Chinese carmakers, including BYD and Chery, were among the companies interested in taking over the factory. Ford also held talks with a German solar panel manufacturer but as of October 2023 the site was on course for closure after these talks fell through Given that the Focus won’t be around for much longer, it’s little surprise that it has received very few updates over the past couple of years. With that being said, Ford did introduce a new optional Track Pack for the flagship ST model in late 2022 that includes adjustable KW suspension IG Metall and the works council at Ford Motors in Saarlouis announced a document for a social contract aimed at sealing the end of the plant Of the almost 7,000 jobs that once existed at the factory only 1,000 are to remain at the end of next year This means that 2,800 of the current workforce of around 3,800 will lose their jobs by that date in addition to around 1,500 jobs lost in the neighbouring supplier park This confirms what the Ford Action Committee has always said Jobs cannot be defended with the works council and IG Metall the works council and IG Metall have worked intensely with the company management in what can only be described as a conspiracy against the workforce has been to keep production running as smoothly as possible while organising the closure of the plant and the destruction of jobs in secret negotiations claimed that the plant and the jobs could be defended by workers making voluntary and far-reaching concessions on wages and working conditions He also maintained that negotiations had to be conducted in secret in order to be successful and that an investor had been found whose name could not be made public in order not to jeopardise a possible takeover All of these claims have proved to be lies and deception Now Thal & Co are trying to talk up severance payments and quote high sums which when calculated accurately and after deduction of taxes The claim that a severance payment is a replacement for a job is the next big lie told by the works council mafia Severance pay has never and nowhere prevented massive job losses It has invariably been the path to social devastation and the ruination of future of generations There is no individual way out of the crisis A common struggle in defence of all jobs is necessary and can no longer be postponed That is why the establishment of the independent action committee is so important The redundancies and plant closure plans at Ford are just the beginning A job massacre is unfolding in the auto industry the likes of which the sector has not seen since the Second World War manufacturers and suppliers have been using the transfer to electric mobility to cut jobs and increase labour exploitation the Munich-based Ifo Institute once again reported falling business expectations in the auto industry based on a company survey Shareholders are now unequivocally demanding a huge increase in the exploitation of the around 800,000 workers employed by manufacturers and suppliers in order to ensure ever rising returns on their investments Studies estimate that up to 40 percent of jobs will be lost as a result of the switch to electric mobility The situation in other countries is very similar This means that major class struggles are inevitable which will go far beyond the current warning strikes and break through the control of the trade union apparatus factory occupations and mass protests of all kinds This is why IG Metall and its works councils are doing everything they can to suppress any initiative in defence of the Ford plant in Saarlouis They are afraid that Ford-Saarlouis will spark a conflagration and that the heated mood and anger over mass redundancies and social cuts will turn into active resistance The conclusion is clear: it is necessary to courageously oppose the conspiracy of the management board works council and IG Metall to shut down the plant Millions of workers in many other companies are waiting for someone to make a start Thal and his cronies are threatening that anyone who fights the closure will lose their right to severance pay when he agreed to the disgraceful bidding contest and played off the employees in Saarlouis against their colleagues in Almussafes the works council is now once again trying to divide the workforce with the help of the social plan The social plan does not suspend the right to strike and industrial action The announcement of the plant closure also ended the phase of so-called industrial peace There is no reason to continue production under these conditions and be led like lambs to the slaughter It is now necessary to build the action committee and prepare joint struggle measures Two things are key to this end: building links with workers at other Ford plants and suppliers and taking stock of the reactionary divisive policy of the works council and IG Metall which have been especially bitter for colleagues at Ford in Saarlouis After the initial shock that followed the announcement of the plant’s closure in June 2022 the works council under Thal spread the illusion that things could somehow continue One year earlier he had already played off the employees in Saarlouis against those in Almussafes in Spain in a brutal bidding war Thal negotiated behind closed doors for months he refuses to disclose the wage concessions and extensive deterioration in working conditions he offered at the time This was followed by stalling tactics with a supposed investor who would take over the plant it became clear that there was no investor rumours were fuelled that an investor would or had already been found In order to absorb the expected anger and disappointment the works council and IG Metall organised short warning strikes from January 17 to 19 The reason given by Thal was that Ford management was refusing to increase severance payments beyond those stipulated in existing contracts He later announced that the social plan that was now on the table was the result of the workforce’s struggle the last warning strike spectacle by the IGM and the works council was aimed solely at concealing the fact that the social contract agreed serves exclusively to enforce the plant closure and maintain production up until the last day the extension of production until the end of November 2025 IGM and the works council are now urging the workforce to accept the “overall packet” in a ballot on February 22 This would be the final nail in the coffin Thal is hammering into the plant and means that car production in Saarlouis will be history by the end of 2025 The WSWS and the Ford Action Committee have been fighting against the bankrupt policy of IG Metall and its works councils from the very beginning We therefore call on the workforce to act now: China’s BYD may be looking to strengthen its foothold in Europe and is in talks with Ford to buy the American automaker’s assembly plant in Saarlouis The Wall Street Journal reports that Ford management in Germany is heading to China next week to discuss the terms of a sale with BYD citing unnamed sources within the American company prices and other terms of the deal are not yet known According to the sources, though, the deal is still in the preliminary stages, meaning that it is not certain that the Chinese company will buy Ford’s German plant Other companies said to be in discussions with the American automaker include Magna International which may look to buy the plant with the help of an automaker Read: Ford Focus To Be Phased Out In 2024, German Plant Axed In Shift To EVs “We’re investigating various options for the future and sustainable use of the Saarlouis site,” a Ford spokesperson told the WSJ we are in ongoing discussions with a number of potential buyers and have nothing further to add at this time.” Ford previously announced in June that it would be shutting down its Saarlouis, Germany, plant by 2025. The plant currently produces the Focus. The automaker is working to overhaul its European operations as it shifts over entirely to electric vehicle production For BYD the move would mark an important step for its European expansion Already China’s biggest electric vehicle manufacturer the company has begun to sell some passenger vehicles and buses in select European markets and this move could presage further growth Ford Motor Company’s decision to halt production at its plant in Saarlouis Germany in 2025 is part of the biggest international assault on the social gains and rights of the working class since the 1930s At stake are not only the futures of the families of the 4,600 directly employed workers but also another 1,500 workers in the neighbouring supplier companies and the economic life of the entire region where several tens of thousands of jobs depend upon the auto industry The Ford-Saarlouis workforce is representative of workers around the world whose livelihoods are being destroyed Global auto companies are using the shift to less complex electric motors to reorganize the whole production process and squeeze every last ounce of profit out of workers Ford reported a profit of nearly €9 billion on sales of €115 billion for 2021 CEO Jim Farley announced that the company aims to achieve an operating return of 10 percent by 2026 The company’s most important aides in this are the trade unions and their works council representatives They agree with the corporations on wage and job cuts suppress any resistance to them and divide workers by playing off one location against another The “bidding contest” between the Ford plants in Saarlouis and Valencia in which both the German IG Metall and Spanish UGT unions participated is only the shabbiest form of this rigged game Yet the restructuring of the auto industry is only one front in the capitalists’ global offensive against the working class The dramatic rise in inflation—a consequence of trillion-dollar state giveaways to the financial markets and the NATO offensive against Russia—is driving countless working class households into poverty and hardship The “profits before lives” policy in the pandemic has caused millions of deaths worldwide and lifelong illnesses for even more The vast sums spent on rearmament and war are being recouped through cuts in education While millions of workers worldwide are losing their livelihoods the fortunes of shareholders and the multimillion-dollar salaries of top managers continue to grow France and Luxembourg with a population of just under 1 million has been particularly hard hit by this upheaval Its economic development shows great parallels to the Ruhr area the coal and steel industries were at the centre of economic life until the postwar period more than 125,000 people were still employed in Saarland’s mining and steel industries; by the early 1970s and unemployment had risen above 15 percent The colliery die-off began in the 1960s and lasted until 2002 The announcement of the closure of the Ford plant in Saarlouis fell almost exactly on the day the last colliery closed 20 years ago Mining’s demise was accompanied by the winding up of the Saarland steel industry of the more than 125,000 people employed in coal and steel only around 7,000 steelworkers from Saarstahl and Dillinger Hütte remain The shutdown of Saarland’s coal and steel industries earned Oskar Lafontaine as Social Democratic Party (SPD) state premier and Peter Hartz as labour director of Dillinger Hütte and Saarstahl whose brother Kurt headed the IG Metall in Völklingen for three decades became head of human resources at the VW Group in 1993 and in 2002 devised the “labour market and welfare reforms” named after him for Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD) where a new Opel plant began production on a former coal mine site in 1962 the state government sought to attract automotive companies to Saarland in an effort to mitigate the effects of the coal and steel crisis production of vehicle components for other Ford plants and for Renault began in Saarlouis The plant was Ford’s 14th production facility in Europe the choice of location was a profitable decision It secured advantages over competitors in the rapidly growing European market The geographic location in the border triangle was advantageous for supplies and exports And the federal and state governments granted Ford massive concessions and subsidies Because of rising unemployment due to the slow death of coal mining then-Chancellor Ludwig Erhardt had become involved in negotiations with Ford Henry Ford II said that the company had chosen the site “also because of the encouragement and support we received from the government of the Saarland and from the German government.” more than 15 million cars have been produced in Saarlouis Eighty percent of these were exported to more than 80 countries worldwide the workforce grew to 4,600 in 1971 and 8,100 in 1978 the workforce size fluctuated with the change of models and the ups and downs of sales The pace of work and productivity were continuously increased Ford became one of the first automakers to introduce “just in time” delivery of vehicle components reducing inventory costs and outsourcing entire production areas to cheaper suppliers Saarlouis became the pilot plant for the introduction of “just in sequence.” “Just in time” was thus extended to all models produced at the plant Suppliers delivered the parts and components for pre-planned simultaneous production of the various models the Ford Saarlouis Industrial Park was created right next to the auto plant where suppliers set up their production facilities in the immediate vicinity of the factory The Saarland state government subsidized the construction of the facility to the tune of €100 million Some of the supplier parts are transported directly to the Ford assembly line via electric monorail systems or tunnels Ford announced it had installed a new hot forming plant in the new Boron hall This can process ultra-high-strength and particularly lightweight boron steel components on site and has—at that time the only one in the automotive industry—a fully automated unloading process Workers hope that at least this modern facility and the entire stamping plant will remain in place after 2025 The Saarlouis plant also underscores the essential unity of the working class Workers from France and Luxembourg work together with their colleagues from Germany more than 1,000 workers crossed the border every day The families of many of the plant’s workers come from Turkey As recently as 2019—just before the final round of layoffs—7,200 people were still working at Ford in Saarlouis the new works council under Markus Thal took up office the first step was taken to halt production it was announced that Ford would end production of the C-Max in June 2019 contrary to a works agreement that guaranteed production until the end of 2019 the current IG Metall Völklingen Director Lars Desgranges reacted to management’s decision to throw the old company agreement in the trash by demanding a new one “And that’s when we say: If we really have to give up the C-Max in order to develop a perspective for this plant then we also want to have this perspective agreed upon in a works agreement We want long-term security for the site with investment commitments.” 1,000 more jobs were eliminated; the workforce currently stands at just under 4,600 the cutbacks were supported by the IG Metall works council representatives with empty promises that they served to “secure the production location.” The workforce was therefore shocked when Ford announced three weeks ago that it would end production and thus not only for the workers directly affected but for future generations as well It is time to learn the lessons from the experiences of Ford workers many of whom have spent more than half their lives at the plant The times when lost jobs were replaced by jobs of equal value are long gone where three Opel plants once employed 20,000 workers DHL now operates a large logistics centre on the former plant site and the Ruhr University has various research facilities All that remains of Opel is a newly built European central warehouse with 700 employees The “bidding competition” between Valencia and Saarlouis in which the works councils of both plants sought to outdo each other with proposals for more profitable production have also served to reduce production costs through huge job cuts the workers there will face much worse conditions The building of independent action committees is directly linked to the struggle for a socialist perspective Without breaking the power of the big corporations and the financial aristocracy Only the expropriation of the corporations and banks without compensation creates the conditions for the democratic control over production Only then is it possible to develop production according to a plan in the interests of the working class and social needs Get in touch with the Ford Action Committee Thanks for visiting The use of software that blocks ads hinders our ability to serve you the content you came here to enjoy We ask that you consider turning off your ad blocker so we can deliver you the best experience possible while you are here The decision to close down the Ford plant here in Saarlouis by 2025 at the latest and destroy the livelihood of our families heralds a new stage in our struggle Now it is time to take stock and draw the necessary conclusions What we have been warning about for half a year has come to pass. A few days after the cutback plans were submitted at the end of January to Ford’s European headquarters in Cologne, we wrote: we reject the blackmail and brutal competition being instigated between us and workers at other plants We demanded an immediate end to the secret negotiations between the works councils and management at all sites Many colleagues we speak to also think there should never have been any participation in the intra-company bidding competition But both our works council in Saarlouis under Markus Thal and the Spanish works council under José Luis Parra insisted on it Both were solidly convinced that they could demand greater sacrifices from “their” workforce and thus win the bid have kept quiet about what cuts they have offered The confidentiality agreement they signed was mainly to avoid having to tell us workers anything because most of us would certainly not have agreed Thal and his works council representatives constantly claim they are fighting the works council declares: “It is now a matter of fighting with all our might to preserve our site and for as many jobs as possible.” But to fight “we need robust answers from Ford.” In other words The only thing the works council representatives understand by this is grovelling before the company and begging for handouts We are supposed to keep quiet in order not to endanger this “fight” on our knees The only aim of the IG Metall union and the works council is to prevent us waging a real struggle The protest rally last week was deliberately held far away from the company premises--for fear that angry Ford workers might take the initiative organise a spontaneous occupation of the company gates and launch a strike One worker summed up the widespread sentiment: “They should have blocked the gatehouse and all the gates immediately and not let anyone in or out.” Another said “Not a single vehicle should be allowed out.” The currently organised question times and departmental meetings do not amount to industrial action The small amount of lost time due to these Q&A sessions will be easily made up in the coming weeks the works council rejected short-time working Even working during the factory holidays will not be prevented Parts for other factories are supposed to come off the production line in the press shop Works council representatives accuse the company of having broken the “trusting cooperation” provided for in the Works Constitution Act they constantly affirm that they are slavishly subordinate to the Works Constitution Act The works council and IG Metall have not been betrayed by the Ford group They have deceived us jointly with top management Like sheep on the way to the slaughterhouse The works council’s announcement that it wants to negotiate for “the preservation of our plant and as many jobs as possible” shows that it has already given its blessing to job cuts What the future will look like if the works council has its way is clear an audio file is being distributed among us via WhatsApp in which Armin Gehl an association of the transnational auto industry in the tri-border region of Luxembourg explains how the companies envisage the next three years He sees a great opportunity for the Saarlouis press plant to remain in existence and work alongside other European Ford plants—the plants in Cologne This would mean that “only” about 3,000 of the 4,200 employees remaining in three years would lose their jobs Of the more than 1,500 employees in the supplier park Gehl said he had heard from Ford that most of the more than 3,000 workers who will lose their jobs will go through a severance programme This is what IG Metall is currently negotiating in close cooperation with the works council: the press shop would preserve the site and “as many jobs as possible.” We repeat: The defence of our plant and our jobs is only possible in a struggle against the IG Metall and its works council representatives the plant that our fathers and grandfathers built up over 50 years will be closed down We propose to prepare real actions of struggle: Strikes actions to prevent the dismantling and removal of machinery the dispatch of delegations to other sites and companies Our closest allies are our Ford brothers and sisters in Valencia (Spain) Our colleagues in Valencia are paying for the promise to continue production there with massive wage cuts job losses and the deterioration of their working conditions Romania and Turkey must also expect renewed attacks The division of the Ford group into a combustion engine division and an e-division is linked to demands for a profit margin of 10 percent Ford has announced it will close two plants the other was supposed to close its doors for good on Friday But our colleagues in India started a strike and occupation of the factory gates more than four weeks ago Ford tried to fight back against the industrial action by using strike-breakers but then it was forced to increase its compensation offers Now it has postponed the closure for a month as it still wants to sell the 1,400 cars that are almost finished in the factory Our Indian colleagues continue to reject Ford’s offers Some have contacted us and are very interested in an exchange of ideas with us but also other workers would welcome the initiative to fight against plant closures since protests and struggles are increasing all over the world especially because of rapidly rising prices we have seen that the willingness of the workforce to fight is great But the most important step in conducting a principled struggle to defend the factory is to build our rank-and-file action committee Send a WhatsApp message to the following number: +491633378340) to give organisational and political expression to the widespread opposition to the works council ·      Strike now because we cannot wait until 2025 ·      Unite with our brothers and sisters ·      Make contact with other workers in Germany France and around the world who are resisting paying with their livelihoods for the enrichment of shareholders and executives and the cost of war and militarism The Dutch electric bus manufacturer Ebusco has a new customer in Germany: Ebusco won a tender from KVS GmbH Saarlouis and will be commissioned by the public transport company to supply 20 electric buses The order specifies 15 examples of the Ebusco 2.2 with a length of 12 metres as a solo bus and five Ebusco 2.2 in the 18-metre version – as an articulated bus The vehicles are to be delivered at the beginning of 2024 and will be used in the Saarland and the city of Saarlouis The Ebusco 2.2 is the manufacturer’s tried and tested model, which is still regularly ordered. With the Ebusco 3.0 the Dutch company also have a newer model on offer which is supposed to reduce consumption and thus energy costs due to its lightweight construction Ebusco states that winning the tender in Saarlouis in which other e-bus suppliers had also participated underlines “once again the competitiveness of the Ebusco 2.2 in terms of range and energy consumption” more detailed reasons why the KVS chose the 2.2 instead of the 3.0 are not given KVS managing director Andreas Michel only states that Ebusco prevailed with the best offer “The Ebusco 2.2 low-floor buses have a very large radius of action and will help transform KVS’s fleet step by step to emission-free transport,” Michel is quoted as saying in the Ebusco release adds: “We are very proud to be able to win this tender for Ebusco We are very much looking forward to working with KVS Saarlouis together we can fulfill our common goal to make public transport more sustainable.” ebusco.com (WACH) - Former South Carolina women's basketball star shooter Destiny Littleton is taking her talents overseas Littleton signed with the Saarlouis Royals in Germany WACH Fox sports reporter Amanda Poole spoke with Littleton to discuss the process and how her collegiate career prepared her for the next level Click on the video at the top of the page to watch the full interview The move comes as Ford in Europe priortises shift to EVs Ford has confirmed that it will cease making the Focus model in 2025 in a move that threatens the longer-term future of its Saarlouis Ford said that its plant in Saarlouis will continue to produce the Ford Focus passenger car until then while the company is also evaluating options for future site concepts Ford has emphasised the future role for electrified models – which includes its Cologne plant in Germany being a hub for EV production It will build a new SUV based on VW’s MEB platform from 2023 Ford also recently announced that its Valencia plant would receive investment for making electric vehicles on a next-generation electric vehicle architecture Ford of Europe chief Stuart Rowley told media this week that there is no additional model planned for Saarlouis when Focus production ends and that the company is evaluating alternative options that could even include selling the plant to another automaker Analysts note that the C-segment hatchback Focus model used to sit in a segment that dominated the European car market it has dramatically declined as crossovers and SUVs have surged in popularity over the past ten years The forecast shift to electric over the next five years has made the case for investment in a replacement compact hatchback model with an ICE-based powertrain even less convincing for Ford management Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis Nominations are now open for the prestigious Just Auto Excellence Awards - one of the industry's most recognised programmes celebrating innovation This is your chance to showcase your achievements Don't miss the opportunity to be honoured among the best - submit your nomination today Give your business an edge with our leading industry insights View all newsletters from across the GlobalData Media network By clicking here, you agree to our Terms and Conditions and consent to us collection your details for the purposes of your enquiry Ford had been hopeful that it would be able to sell its factory in Saarlouis, Germany but talks with a potential investor have fallen through and the site is now on course for a thorough makeover No less than fifteen possible investors expressed interest in the plant The boss of Ford Europe’s passenger car business informed workers at the plant that it would look for an alternative plan that would allow it to save 1,000 of the 4,400 jobs at the factory Ford says this plan would see it convert the site into a technology center but further details about this center are not known at this early stage The union representing workers at the site expressed frustration at the news and said it would work to finalize a collective bargaining agreement for those workers who will lose their jobs Read: Ford To Build 250,000 EVs Per Year In New German Plant, Starting With VW-Based Explorer “This will be expensive for Ford,” union representative Joerg Koehlinger said “We will send a signal so that other companies will be afraid to flatten sites.” We’ve known of the impending demise of Ford’s Saarlouis plant since mid-2022 when the carmaker announced that its factory in Valencia Spain had been selected to build future electric vehicles for the European market Ebusco has signed a contract with KVS GmbH Saarlouis for 15 Ebusco 2.2 12-meter and 5 Ebusco 2.2 18-meter buses The delivery of these buses is planned for early 2024 further strengthening its position in one the leading countries for Zero Emission transport The new Ebusco 2.2 buses will be used by public transport company KVS (GmbH Nahverkehrs-Unternehmen) in the state Saarland and city of Saarlouis not far from Karlsruhe and close to the French border.Andreas Michel Managing Director at KVS Saarlouis comments: “Following the tender for electric buses for the KVS Saarlouis Ebusco came out on top with the most advantageous offer The Ebusco 2.2 low-floor buses have a very large radius of action and will help transform KVS’s fleet step by step to emission-free transport.Wolfgang Hackauf Sales Director at Ebusco comments: “We are very proud to be able to win this tender for Ebusco together we can fulfill our common goal to make public transport more sustainable.”  © Copyright 2012 - 2025 | Vado e Torno Edizioni | All rights reserved | P.I Even before the desserts (an iced coffee with chocolate, nuts and caramel and various small sweets, including a spectacular mandarin gum), the two dishes that drew the loudest applause passed the table. The first was a simple truffle quiche, the second a hamachi fish cooked to perfection. At the end of the meal, when the chefs came to greet the diners, there was an expression in Louis' parlour that was almost as loud as "dankeschön". It was "villmols merci". Louis' four-course dinners are a sign of a trend. "We're very keen to appeal to the Luxembourg clientele, who have purchasing power and are right next door," said Britta Krug, the hotel and restaurant director, at the end of the meal. "The haute cuisine market obviously has a large clientele in the Grand Duchy." Until a few years ago, it was the most starred country in the world per capita. Luxembourg currently has one restaurant with two Michelin stars (Ma Langue Sourrit) and seven with one. With the announcement of Villa's closure, there will soon be only six. In 2018, for example, the country had two restaurants with two stars and eight with one. The same arguments always seem to feature in the closure narrative: high rents, staff and food prices. Laurent Fery, director of the Gault&Millau Luxembourg guide, admits that the last two years have been stagnant. "There was a huge boom after the pandemic because people wanted to go out again after spending so much time at home. But then things cooled down, much to blame for the price increase that the energy crisis brought," he said. However, he remains hopeful things will pick up. "I believe that 2025 will be a year of recovery, with new venues opening and bringing very good things," he said. While the Grand Duchy is sorting out its difficulties, Germany continues to wink across the border. Despite the fact that the German state of Saarland is an industrial area, unappealing to tourists, there are more and more top restaurants wanting to capitalise on the Luxembourg clientele. The best-known case is Victor's Fine Dining in Perl, just one kilometre from the Luxembourg city of Schengen. It has three stars. But in Saarbrücken, 40 kilometres from Schengen, there are now two two-star restaurants. In the rest of the state, there are four more with one star. And even on the French side of the border, we saw the Domaine de la Klaus win its inaugural star last year - right next to Schengen, too. 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The plant is Ford’s lone manufacturing facility for the Focus and employs about 5,000 workers. , opens new tab earlier this year announced it would start EV production in Spain in 2025 and will open a battery production plant in Valencia.Reporting by Joan Faus Inti Landauro and Tom Sims; editing by Jason Neely and Jonathan Oatis On 15 January the Spanish newspaper Economia Digital reported that the Ford Motors general works council headed by Benjamin Gruschka has offered to slash wages in Germany in order to undercut the Ford plant in Almussafes in Valencia the German union IG Metall has promised wage cuts of 18 percent and additional unpaid overtime amounting to 20 days per year The offer affects not only the 4,600 workers in Saarlouis but also all German Ford factories with a total staff of around 22,000 Workers at Ford’s main plant in Cologne and its development site in Aachen are also expected to take cuts The general works council had already announced in December 2021 that everyone would have to make “sacrifices,” calling the move “Solidarity for Saarlouis—a future for everyone.” The union remained silent about the extent of its offer to the company When the Ford group announced a few months earlier that its two plants in Saarland and Valencia would have to compete against one another for the contract to produce electric vehicles the respective workforces were shocked and spoke out against this policy of divide and rule on the part of management the works councils and union bureaucrats in Germany and Spain took on the task of organising a competitive bidding process and since then have repeatedly undercut one another IG Metall and its works councils remained absolutely firm on their offer to management submitted together with the Saarland state government headed by premier Anke Rehlinger (SPD) When Ford first announced in June last year that the group’s next electric model would be built in Almussafes and that the site in Saarlouis would be closed Thal has complained about the company's decision arguing that the IG Metall offer was allegedly 1.4 billion euros better for the company than the one from Almussafes the works council led by José Luís Parra of the trade union Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT) led the bidding competition The Spanish works councils have now disclosed some information about the offer made in Germany The Ford plant in Almussafes is due to hold works council elections The UGT works councillors led by Parra had to justify the cuts they had agreed to in the bidding competition and which they are now in the process of implementing These cuts include freezing wages for the next four years wage increases of just 1.6 percent from 2026 as well as an extension of daily working times by 15 minutes and the cancellation of some holidays This adds up to a total of eleven days extra that each worker will have to work each year Aachen and Saarlouis are to receive 18 percent less pay and work an extra 20 days per year The exact terms of the offer remain unclear; 15 percent of the wage reduction was supposedly to come from cuts in contractually agreed wage components Ford employees are paid according to the North Rhine-Westphalian state contract for the metal and electrical industry Non-contractual wage components have not existed for a long time Thal and IG Metall offer cuts in these wage levels Or have they offered to forego future increases The remaining 3 percent of the 18 percent wage cut was apparently to be added by cutting the so-called “transformation pay” (T-train) first agreed in 2021 which allowed workers to choose between extra pay or up to eight additional days off the workforce in Saarlouis was expected to sacrifice 20 days off workers can save up 14 to 15 free shifts per year based on their current daily half-hour of extra work These 14 free shifts plus another six free days—presumably subtracted from the T-train agreement—would then add up to the total of 20 days This massive attack on workers’ pay and conditions was apparently worked out behind closed doors by a small cabal led by Gruschka Ford workers must demand that the scandalous offer made by the German works councils and union be fully disclosed The extraordinary factory meeting on January 23 in Cologne is a good opportunity to do so the workforce at the Cologne main plant were informed that their jobs would also be cut in which workers have united against the policy of the works council and IG Metall demanded that the IGM offer be made public but Thal and Gruschka have vehemently rejected this Once again it can be seen that the Ford Action Committee was absolutely right in rejecting the entire bidding process The committee warned from the beginning that the winner of the bidding competition was a foregone conclusion—the company and the works council leaders production in Saarlouis is due to cease in two and a half years at the latest and several thousand workers will lose their livelihoods the workforce not only faces wage cuts and extra work but also job cuts and even the possible closure of the plant Several Ford models are currently being phased out—the Mondeo already last year All that remains is production of the Ford Kuga and part of the Transit Connect production The start of production of the new electric vehicle for which wages will be reduced and working hours made more flexible has not yet been scheduled and could only commence in 2030 workers expect that several hundred will lose their jobs this year Already 700 workers are on short-time work every day Leon Trotsky wrote that the character of a trade union is expressed “by its relation to the distribution of the national income.” If the trade union officials “defend the income of the bourgeoisie from attacks on the part of the workers should they conduct a struggle against strikes then we would have an organization of scabs and not a trade union.” 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 It is an anti-worker organisation that enforces the company’s attacks on the workforce There is considerable disquiet amongst the Saarlouis workforce Workers are asking how they can get rid of this corrupt works council once and for all and defend their jobs The current calm—sickness leave is up to 20 percent in some departments and just a few hundred workers still come to the works meetings—heralds a new wave of open opposition The important thing now is to prepare for what is coming Contact the Ford Action Committee and discuss a common policy for struggle Contact us and send a Whatsapp message to the following number: +491633378340 The Motley Fool is a financial services company dedicated to making the world smarter The Motley Fool reaches millions of people every month through our premium investing solutions free guidance and market analysis on Fool.com Ford's biggest sites on the Continent are shutting down Ford Motor Company (F -0.97%) said that it will temporarily suspend production at its main manufacturing sites in Europe in response to the growing outbreak of COVID-19 Ford will suspend production at its vehicle assembly plants in Cologne and Saarlouis in Germany A Ford Focus on the production line at Ford's assembly plant in Saarlouis The Saarlouis factory is one of four Ford plants in Europe that will be shut down by the end of this week The Cologne and Saarlouis plants manufacture the Fiesta and Focus sedans, respectively, for European markets. While the two models have been discontinued in the United States, they remain among Ford's best-selling products in Europe The decision to shut down was driven in part by supply chain concerns But he emphasized that the company is also considering the human aspect "While the impact of coronavirus at our facilities so far has been limited thankfully on Monday after three of its workers tested positive for COVID-19 over the weekend The Valencia factory builds several models including the European version of the Escape SUV Ford last week ordered all of its workers outside of China to work from home for the duration if their jobs allowed The company said that it decided to move ahead with closing its European plants following the Worth Health Organization's designation of Europe as the new epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic John Rosevear owns shares of Ford. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy *Average returns of all recommendations since inception Cost basis and return based on previous market day close Market data powered by Xignite and Polygon.io appears poised to further shrink its manufacturing footprint in Europe as the automaker invests heavily in electrifying its vehicle lineup aims to boost profitability and sees its sales volumes in the region slipping the Dearborn automaker has significantly realigned its European operations in recent years abandoning less profitable vehicle lines and allocating resources to more profitable products including commercial vehicles and SUVs But the reassessment might not be complete The automaker reportedly is evaluating its plants in Saarlouis according to media reports out of both countries where the possibility of a plant closure has made national headlines and prompted concerns among workers labor leaders and government officials Management reportedly is in separate discussions with union officials to determine the viability of each operation proposals each plant is slated to submit before the end of this month. A decision by Ford is expected this summer but the automaker has not commented directly on the reports the company said: “Aligned with our ambition to drive the future of mobility in Europe and become a leading manufacturer of fully connected we are continuing to transform our industrial operations but we have nothing further to communicate at this time." The prospect of another plant closure comes as Ford has seen its sales in Europe slide amid the coronavirus pandemic, related supply-chain disruptions and the rollout of its electrification strategy for the region where it aims to field an all-electric passenger-vehicle lineup by the end of the decade EV commitments already have been made at many of the automaker's other plants in Europe but Saarlouis and Valencia do not yet have any all-electric vehicle allocations "Given this reduction in volume and this rationalization strategy it's highly likely that Ford won't need all its plants," said Justin Cox director of global production for forecasting firm LMC Automotive Ford set off its latest round of restructuring in Europe in a bid to reduce structural costs in a region where U.S automakers historically have struggled to gain footing Ultimately, Ford cut about 12,000 jobs and sold or closed six plants across the United Kingdom, France, Russia and the Czech Republic. It also has cut shifts at both Saarlouis and Valencia the company said it would exit less profitable vehicle lines introduce new electrified options and focus on the segments where it does well including SUVs and the commercial vehicle line that historically has been Ford of Europe's profit center It's made these moves as it aims to achieve 6% profit margins in the region by 2023 "Ford's problem in Europe — it is too small," said Ferdinand Dudenhöffer director of the Center Automotive Research in Duisburg "The vehicles can actually only be sold in Europe so there are always high development costs that make it difficult to work profitably." And as competition from the likes of Stellantis NV grows Dudenhöffer sees passenger vehicles continuing to be a challenge for Ford potentially leading to further reductions to CEO Jim Farley's move to stop making cars in Brazil despite the company's long history there: "He takes action if he feels it's necessary."  Last year, Ford pledged to electrify most of its European vehicle lineup by 2030 it is investing $1 billion to convert its Cologne operations into an EV manufacturing center which Ford is building on Volkswagen's MEB platform is scheduled to roll off assembly lines there next year.  the company employs about 42,000 people in Europe and maintains a manufacturing presence in the United Kingdom Romania and Russia at 10 wholly-owned plants and four unconsolidated joint-venture facilities the automaker was selling roughly 1.4 million vehicles in Europe the best result it had seen in European markets since 2009 a year when the pandemic upended the industry It had not yet released full-year results for 2021 as of Friday but they are expected to be worse than 2020 in part due to production cuts tied to the global semiconductor shortage LMC Automotive pegs Ford of Europe's production volume at about 850,000 units last year and they’re not going for market share," said Philippe Houchois an autos analyst at investment bank Jefferies "So that always raises the question whether your industrial capacity is adequate or not.” Ford also has struggled to maintain profitability in Europe it posted an $834 million loss. The automaker has not yet released full-year financial results for 2021 but through the first three quarters of the year it netted a slim $5 million profit in Europe it was getting squeezed a little bit," Cox said. Now “it looks like the volumes potentially won’t be sufficient to maintain the footprint that they’ve got." Uncertain futureEnter Saarlouis and Valencia two plants with different product lines and workforces but both facing an uncertain future according to numerous recent reports in the German and Spanish presses Managers and labor leaders at both plants reportedly are preparing proposals they will submit to Ford in a bid to be part of the automaker's all-electric transition most of Ford's plants in Europe are earmarked for EV investments to convert a transmission plant in the U.K assemble electric commercial vans at a plant in Turkey and build a new light commercial vehicle has been allocated an all-electric product at this time and Saarlouis currently does not have any product commitments beyond 2025 The Süddeutsche Zeitung, or SZ, one of Germany's largest newspapers, in late December reported that labor leaders were concerned that Ford might close another plant in Europe and identified Saarlouis and Valencia as possible candidates Ford's Saarlouis Body and Assembly Plant dates back to 1970 and in the ensuing decades grew to be a major economic force in Saarland a southwestern German state bordered by France and Luxembourg where tens of thousands of jobs are tied to industrial manufacturing The plant has endured several rounds of job cuts in recent years amid Ford's realignment of its product portfolio and more recently pandemic-related production issues It now employs fewer than 5,000 workers building the Ford Focus chairman of the works council at Ford in Saarlouis and workers expressed concerns to SZ about the future of the plant Thal told the paper the plant would be submitting a proposal to the company and media reports indicate management and labor leaders tied to the Valencia plant are preparing to do the same dates to 1976 and currently employs roughly 6,000 workers building five models: the Kuga though local media reports indicate that only the future of Kuga (the European version of the Ford Escape SUV) production is secure beyond 2024 six days before the deadline for the plant to submit a proposal to the company management and labor unions were at an impasse The paper said works council leaders are refusing to accept wage cuts even as management pushes for a 10% reduction in wages a one-week reduction in vacations and a 30-minute extension of work shifts As for how the two plants stack up against each other media reports and industry experts point to Germany's higher labor costs as one factor that could count against Saarlouis But one potential advantage for the plant is that Chinese company Svolt is building an EV battery plant in Saarlouis "You kind of get the sense that it's pointing towards potentially Saarlouis as being the weaker proposition," LMC's Cox said "But it's still up to Ford to make the decision." christian_stuart.wilson@siemens.com See why over a million readers pay to read the Financial Times.