1:05 pm, January 24, 2023
Around 3,200 Ford employees are facing losing their jobs across Europe after Germany’s biggest union revealed the firm is planning a brutal round of redundancies.
IG Metall, which has 2.2 million members in Germany, told the Financial Times that a whopping 2,500 jobs will be lost in product development alone.
Elsewhere, a further 700 administrative jobs – mostly located in Germany – are also set to fall by the wayside.
It is also feared that positions in both Belgium and the UK could be impacted by the reduction in staff numbers.
According to reports, workers at Ford’s Cologne site – which employs around 14,000 people – were informed of the plans yesterday.
IG Metall told the Financial Times: ‘If negotiations between the works council and management in coming weeks do not ensure the future of workers, we will join the process.
‘We will not hold back from measures that could seriously impact the company, not just in Germany but Europe-wide.’
Ford has said in a statement that it has ‘no comment on the current speculations about the dimensions of a possible restructuring at Ford in Europe’ and was ‘committed to inform our employees first when the time is right.’
It also stated, however, that its move towards being an electric-only passenger car brand by 2030 will ‘require a change in our organisation, and the talent and skills we will need in the future’ and that it had ‘been and are still in detailed discussion with our social partners across Europe about this transformation’.
Ford currently operates two major manufacturing sites in the UK, located in Dagenham – where it produces diesel engines – and Halewood (pictured), where gearboxes are created.
Bosses in the UK recently announced a multi-million-pound investment in the Halewood plant as it looks to prepare for electrification.
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