MAN wants to build its small trucks in Poland instead of Austria and sell the plant in Steyr.
The workforce stands sideways - and is now in front of a pile of broken glass.
Steyr / Munich - MAN wants to close its plant in Steyr, Austria.
Around 2300 employees work there.
As the works council of the truck manufacturer announced, 64 percent of the workforce have rejected the takeover of the plant by the car manager Siegfried Wolf.
The VW subsidiary announced in Munich: “As a consequence, MAN is now resuming the plans to close the plant in Steyr.” The next step is negotiations on a social plan.
So far, MAN has been building light and medium-weight trucks in Steyr.
However, production is to be relocated to Krakow, Poland.
Wolf, former CEO of the auto supplier Magna, wanted to take over around 1250 employees in Steyr at significantly lower wages, revive the Steyr commercial vehicle brand and continue to build small and medium-sized trucks and vans at the plant.
MAN plant in Steyr on the brink of collapse: "Very disappointed with the result"
MAN boss Andreas Tostmann had warned the workforce in March that Wolf was the only future solution for the plant.
Otherwise it will have to be closed at the end of 2023.
MAN Board Member for Human Resources, Martin Rabe, was contrite on Thursday: "We are really very disappointed with the result because we saw the alternative to the closure as being a very good way for everyone involved." More than 90 percent of the employees in Steyr would have attended the Vote participated.
But apparently Wolf's concept of the workforce was not clear enough.
The deputy head of the works council in Steyr, Helmut Emler, told the Austrian news agency APA that Wolf's concept was “conclusive, but the cuts would have been too serious”.
The works council now wants to talk to MAN about easing the savings plans.
He is open to other investors.
The end of the MAN plant in Steyr: "Something big could have happened here"
Wolf said, according to the APA, he understands the anger of the workforce all too well.
"But I couldn't turn back the clock either, just develop a solid, well-thought-out concept for the future."
He put a lot of heart and soul into this project because "with this potential of know-how in vehicle production at this location under the Steyr brand, something new and great could have been created".
In Germany, MAN has agreed with the works council and IG Metall to cut 3,500 jobs by the end of next year.
This should be done through partial retirement, the expiry of fixed-term employment contracts, the reduction of jobs for temporary workers, through voluntary severance payments and changes in the VW Group.
MAN closes the plant in Steyr: electric drives are supposed to get the truck manufacturer out of the crisis
MAN wants to convert its trucks and buses to electric drives in the next few years and to reposition itself completely.
The company has been weak for years.
The situation has recently deteriorated further due to the corona pandemic.
At the same time, the EU is increasing the pressure on the industry through stricter emissions targets.
(dpa)
