The bad news comes for the employees of Bosch in Baden-Württemberg piecemeal: After it was announced on Tuesday to delete 1600 jobs, the automotive supplier now also announced to reduce another 1000 jobs. The division Automotive Steering (steering systems) in Schwäbisch Gmünd is affected.
"We have to act now to make ourselves competitive and thus sustainable again with a profound restructuring," said the chairman of the divisional board, Christian Sobottka, on Thursday. The "Stuttgarter Zeitung" and the "Rems-Zeitung" had reported first.
Currently 5000 employees work at the Bosch location in Schwäbisch Gmünd. Just last Tuesday, Bosch announced that in view of falling demand for diesel and gasoline cars over the next two years, a good 1,600 jobs will be cut. Affected are jobs in the drive division at the locations in Stuttgart-Feuerbach and Schwieberdingen.
Bosch wants to continue to "Schwäbisch Gmünd as a tail" stand
The IG Metall Stuttgart and the IG Metall Baden-Württemberg had reacted "dismayed" to the announcement. "This puts the traditional group in a row with profit-driven automotive suppliers, whose primary goal is to increase the margin - if necessary, on the backs of the employees," it said in a statement.
A site agreement dating from 2017 had already provided for the reduction of hundreds of jobs in Schwäbisch Gmünd by the end of 2022. This reduction is now to be extended by a further 1000 jobs.
"This is a challenge for us," said a spokesman for the city. Lord Mayor Richard Arnold (CDU) spoke to the management and the works council. He insists that the location is not fundamentally questioned, but reoriented. "We stand by Schwäbisch Gmünd as a tail," said Sobottka.
Bosch currently employs around 410,000 people worldwide, including 140,000 in Germany. According to data from May, around 50,000 jobs worldwide depend on diesel alone.
