In addition to the already planned job cuts, the American car company Ford strokes a further 1,000 jobs in his traditional work in Cologne. The company informed its employees on Tuesday and confirmed this at the request of the F.A.Z.Z. The company had agreed on a severance payment plan with the IG Metall union after Ford announced in December that they wanted to delete 2900 jobs. This corresponds to every fourth of the currently 11,500 places. Previously, however, there had been violent protests against the savings plans and the first organized strike in the soon hundred years of history of the Cologne Ford works. The production site has been shrinking for years: a few years ago, more than 20,000 people worked for Ford in Cologne. Complete workers affect the already planned job cuts and employees from the administration and other company departments, the workers on the volume are now affected: Ford is cutting a shift in the production of its two electrical models Explorer and Capri. In the past, the company had already registered short-time work in the Cologne Ford works due to the lack of an customer of its more than 40,000 euros, but has been producing in two-shift operation so far. According to the union, Ford comes to around 300 to 350 vehicles per shift. The employees concerned were informed on Tuesday in a meeting about the plans of the Ford management. According to a Ford spokesman, the same severance payments should apply to the 1000 employees, which have recently been negotiated. “The colleagues are shocked. Of course, many are wondering: How is the future? The union wants to quickly get into talks to compensate for interests. “The employer will not be changed because he sells so few cars. So we are concerned with the questions what this means in general for the future and what the schedule looks like for the workforce,” said Gruschka. So far there are still few details. Electric cars sell badly Cologne, both electric cars and commercial vehicles are produced. There is also a development center. Ford had rebuilt the Cologne plant for two billion dollars: with the end of the already less profitable small car production of the Fiesta model in Cologne and the conversion to electric models, Ford wanted to be ahead of the market development. The electric models built in Cologne, the SUV Explorer and the Crossover Capri, are on the technical basis of the Volkswagen electrical models, but there is currently little to see in Germany and Europe. On the contrary: Even modest sales expectations have not yet been fulfilled. In autumn 2024, there was still talk that the electric car factory could produce around 250,000 vehicles a year, in the meantime this was reduced to numbers below the threshold of 200,000. This capacity should be utilized at least half in the current year. But Ford seems far from that. In March, Ford employees protested with drastic words in Cologne against the job cuts of the American car company. Dpalaut Motor Transport Authority (KBA) were approved in Germany to August around 74,000 Ford cars, around 20,000 of which had an electric drive. Other Ford electric cars that are not produced in Cologne-how many Cologne electric cars were sold are also included. The Ford market share in Germany has climbed from 3 to 4.5 percent since the beginning of the year. It goes uphill, but at a low level. In 2023, the company calculated with an electrical share of 35 percent of all sold cars on the market as a whole. In retrospect, this was too optimistic, according to the KBA, the proportion of Stromers is only 18 percent. Strikes and worries about bankruptcy that has long been concerned about the future of the Ford works and feared bankruptcy of the location. This is also why the ligaments in Cologne rested in spring for a day. The parent company from Detroit had previously withdrawn the so -called patronage declaration. This included that America is coming up for all losses of German Ford works. So far, the annual financial statements of Ford-Werke GmbH have always said that the parent company had undertaken with the patronage declaration of “making a liquid funded funds available at any time”. More on the subject of further advertisements This relates mainly to credit lines, the German subsidiary has been writing losses for years. In 2023, for example, there was a shortfall of 126 million euros. “We have been deficient for ten years, we have not earned any money with the cars,” managing director Marcus Wassenberg of the F.A.Z. said. Over the years, a mountain of debt of 5.8 billion euros has accumulated. Capital contribution instead of debt protection shade, the financing of the location in Cologne has now been put onto new legs: Ford grants a capital contribution of 4.4 billion euros. In addition, a business plan for the next four years is financed with “several hundred million euros”. Due to the end of the patronage declaration, the Cologne Ford works are just as there as all other works of the group-without debt protection. For the employees in Cologne, protection was recently agreed by the end of 2032. However, it was already stipulated that operating dismissals are possible, all socially compatible measures should be exhausted.
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