IG Metall on the Ford decision: bidding competition "unworthy"

Created: 06/22/2022, 14:26

The IG Metall logo can be seen on a wall.

© Daniel Karmann/dpa/symbol image

The industrial union IG Metall and the Ford works council do not want to accept the decision of Ford management against the Saarlouis location.

"The metalworkers will use all means to defend themselves against the liquidation of the Ford site," said the head of the IG Metall district center, Jörg Köhlinger, on Wednesday.

Saarlouis - If the management does not give in, Ford will feel "the resistance of an entire federal state", it said.

The union spoke of "an unworthy and brutal bidding competition between the Ford locations in Valencia and Saarlouis".

The Saarlouis location, with its current 4,600 employees, is to be “handled off piece by piece”.

Together with the supplier park, around 6,600 jobs are threatened in Saarland.

Ford announced on Wednesday that it had chosen Valencia, Spain, as the location for the production of new electric cars - and thus not Saarlouis.

IG Metall and the Ford works council demanded future prospects for the Ford location in Saarlouis and called for a fight to secure the location and jobs.

"Without perspective for Saarlouis, we will not accept the group's decision," said the managing director of IG Metall Völklingen, Lars Desgranges.

Köhlinger said that the employees had done everything they could to keep the Ford location in Saarlouis competitive over the past three years.

They would also have accepted short-time work, reduced shifts and downsizing.

"Instead of working together with the workforce to secure the location, the management has put its hands on its lap.

Now an entire region is in danger of being sidelined.”

According to the Ford works council chairman Markus Thal, more than 2,500 jobs have been cut in Saarlouis since 2018.

“We delivered, the management made empty promises.

We feel lied to and betrayed by the Ford Europe management!” dpa