Ford to cut 4,000 jobs in Europe
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Ford plans to cut about 4,000 jobs in Europe, as the carmaker grapples with slowing demand for electric vehicles and fierce competition with Chinese rivals.
The US company said on Wednesday the cuts would be in place by the end of 2027 and would affect about 3,000 jobs in Germany and 800 in the UK, representing about 14 per cent of its 28,000 workforce in Europe.
The moves are pending discussions with unions.
In a joint press conference, union IG Metall’s chief negotiator Thorsten Gröger and VW works council chief Daniela Cavallo, proposed that a previously demanded 7 per cent wage rise go into a “solidarity fund” to support wages during periods of short-term hour reductions.
The proposed package — the first concession in the increasingly tense stand-off between VW workers and managers — would mean executives giving up parts of their bonuses over the next two years, as well as a “contribution through the dividend policy”.
If VW executives would not agree to scrap plans to close at least three factories in Germany, IG Metall’s Gröger said, they should prepare for “an industrial dispute unlike anything the country has seen in decades”. Potential strikes at VW’s German sites would be possible from December 1.
