The French rail vehicle group Alstom is apparently preparing further cuts at its German sites. According to IG Metall and the general works council, the plant in Hennigsdorf, Brandenburg, is to “largely lose its production of new vehicles, and Mannheim its production entirely.” The 175-year-old site in Görlitz, East Saxony, is to be sold.
The union also stated that the company was violating the Future collective agreement“Alstom’s strategy of investing heavily in the so-called best cost countries in order to have production there leads to significantly more delays and quality defects compared to other industry giants.”
The best-cost strategy of the French company management envisages the production of the trains in Katowice and Wroclaw. Other “industry giants” are Siemens Mobility and Stadler.
34
Million The company does not pay out holiday pay.
In 2021, Alstom had the Canadian Bombardier Transportation with a dozen locations and 9,000 employees in Germany, making it the largest rail vehicle manufacturer after the Chinese CRRC.
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Alstom is having a hard time with some of the former Bombardier sites. At the beginning of 2023, the company agreed a “future collective agreement” with IG Metall, to secure the 9,000 jobs and give the locations a future. The employees waived a total of 34 million in holiday pay per year, and in return the company promised to make investments.
Since the employer allegedly failed to meet its obligations, IG Metall terminated the collective agreement last spring and demanded the return of holiday pay. “Around 3,500 employees have submitted so-called claims, which are pending as lawsuits at the relevant labor courts,” the union announced. Gesamtmetall, the umbrella organization of employers, is in turn suing against the termination of the collective agreement.
“In production, the focus will be placed more on interior fittings,” Alstom announced a few months ago. In addition, the group is focusing on the growth areas of service and digitalization in Germany. The East German plants in Hennigsdorf, Bautzen and Görlitz will benefit from this “depending on their location profile.”
In the meantime, an industrial investor from the arms industry seemed to have been found for Görlitz with the cooperation of the Chancellery. However, such efforts have been stagnating for weeks.
René Straube, chairman of the general works council at Alstom, accused the company of “stalling tactics” in a press release from IG Metall on Monday. Management had “ostensibly carried out a few symbolic actions in accordance with the future collective agreement and behind the scenes continued to pursue its own agenda for Germany.” The basis of trust among the workforce had been “massively damaged.” “This means we are on the way to a tough dispute,” said Straube.
