The number shocked: Alone in the branches of the IG Metall, the companies have announced, within twelve months, more than 200 000 jobs will be cut – from Auto to steel, from the aircraft up to the kitchen. The Union accuses companies such as Conti or Schaeffler to remove Corona as a pretext. “A number of employers using the crisis, in Germany, for deforestation to be recognised and to shift work to low-wage countries,” says IG-metal-Chef Jörg Hofmann of the Süddeutsche Zeitung: “If some companies at the same time liquidity assistance or other taxpayer-funded support to take in a claim, this is scandalous.”
After years of boom, the German industrial mass-is cutting jobs. What is a pandemic, what is the structure change and what clearcutting is easy? Affected workers find new Jobs? The unions brace themselves increasingly against the plans.
Spoiled by success industries, such as the car industry and its suppliers were already in front of Corona in a downturn, analyzed, Dominik Groll from the Kiel Institute for the world economy (IfW). “Structural problems such as the exhaust gas scandal, and the transformation to electric mobility that have been around for some time, have now. The company would like to take this occasion, the structural change faster, than you would have done without a Corona.”
Corona, say the managers of the car industry, gave the industry in the past few months, the Rest of it. For the great crisis, but you have no need for a Virus – had already. It’s very simple relationships in this industry, which is currently in the midst of change: to build an electric car, you need far less people than for the production of a car with petrol or diesel engine.
The time of the piston, and the diesel pump is over
And: You need other people. If at some point in the coming years, especially E-cars are coming on the market, time is of the piston and diesel pumps over. How exactly will come in the next few years? No one knows it. Where: In the car industry since the end of the 19th century. Century, a continuous development of the combustion engine, such a revolutionary upheaval such as now, there were not since the invention of the car yet. And that’s not the only Problem. Trade wars, Corona-economic downturn, changes in Technology, Rarely in the auto industry and some other industries are so many risks once.
Especially strongly it affects those who supply the car manufacturers. For example, Schaeffler Herzogenaurach, Germany, a company with nearly 85 000 employees. By 2022, the 4400 Jobs are to be cut, several of the plants will disappear. Or, the Hanover-based supplier Continental, in the world of the 30 000 Jobs the Cant stand, 13 000 of them in Germany alone. You could be realigned so it is. Or be relocated. Or disappear.
The latter two variants are available for IG-metal-Chef Hofmann, of course, a horror, whether in the case of auto suppliers, or any where else in the industry: “the longer the Crisis, the more pressure on employment. The company must be clear that they are endangering their own future.”
The 64-year-old upper metallers recognizes fully that the company with Decarbonisation and digitization have big tasks in front of the chest. For that you need investment in research and development, especially in well-trained professionals. “Otherwise they will have in international competition on issues such as hydrogen or electro-mobility, the Disadvantage.”
What kind of change for employees could be fatal, shows a view into the most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Here, it is a car close to industrial plants with comparatively well-paid and co-determined jobs that have announced the largest Stellenabbbau. Thyssenkrupp up to 6000, Hella, up to 1350, Deutz up to 1000. At the same time, the Deutsche Post around looking for more than 10 000 package deliverer for the high season around Christmas. However, such activities are traditionally paid less well than in industry, where trade unions, high wages have prevailed.
Oh, Yes, the engine Builder Deutz wants to remove more than one-fifth of all jobs in Germany, but in the future, more components produced in China.
An example of how a long structure spiral of crisis, the downside, is the Munich-based Truck and Bus manufacturer MAN. Last year, it was clear that The Truck market comes to a Halt. Shippers wait and see before you buy a new truck. Bad news for an industry that needs every Euro of profit to invest in new technologies. At the beginning of the year, there was talk of a reduction of 6000 jobs. Then the Corona came, and a few days ago, the bad news: 9500 Jobs to every fourth.