Is it true they will lay off 5000 people in Germany?
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Not in Germany (based in the UK) but can tell you a bit about the FoE situation.
Voluntary separation (including early retirement) was offered last year and apparently it went OK (i.e. enough volunteers) in the UK but hardly any took it in Germany.
Now there's another round in 2019 of voluntary separation, and quite early on we were told the target was to reduce workforce by 5000 employees in Germany. Eventually, a number was also announced of around 550 for the UK.
Where it gets confusing is that it seems 550 in UK is mostly salaried, and I believe Ford employees only (we keep loosing contractors every winter, and sometimes at summer time as well).
For Germany, it appears that 5000 is both permanent (Fordies) and temporary (contractors), and possibly even salaried and hourly, so it's clearly not possible to say that from the 7000 salaried reduction in Ford, 5000 will be in Germany. I also don't think it's a target for 2019 only, but might be part of the overall plan and thus include some job reduction in 2020 and beyond.
For a bit of context, Ford announced that some products (C-Max) will be discontinued from Saarlouis Assembly Plant and thus I believe a few hundreds worker will loose their jobs there and will be part of the 5000, but it might be in 2020 only.
I think I saw the overall workforce in Germany is 24,000, so 5000 certainly is a big hit, but it's more than just salaried only and the situation in Saarlouis is a contributor to this number.
If you ask me my opinion, Saarlouis' future is not secure at all: they'll end up with Focus only, and while no other European plant produces this (other that St Petersburg but I assume that's only for local market), other vehicles with the same platform are produced elsewhere so apparently the Focus production could be switched to another assembly plant (with cheaper labour cost) quite easily. So once the volume is reduced in Saarlouis with the loss of C-Max, I can't see the plant stay part of the manufacturing footprint for much longer...
Anyway, 2019 voluntary separation programme is still ongoing, i.e. people had to volunteer but announcement on who's going is not yet made but plan is by end of Q2 I believe. No transparency on level of interest, but it's not clear there are enough volunteers this time again.
Any Germans on this board? Whats happening over there?
That's a huge hit. I guess Germany is no more. I am not with Ford but I really wish you all the best. My company has a busy board here (it's been busy for about 6 months now) and I know that every round of layoffs is tough. God bless.
5400
Thats the plan
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/may/20/ford-motor-company-cut-7000-jobs-500-uk?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_In_Zwischenablage_kopieren