Chancellor visits Ford
Threatening job cuts – works council puts pressure on ahead of Scholz’s visit
10.12.2024Reading time: 2 min.
Chancellor Scholz has already been to Ford in Cologne. At that time, the opening of a new electric car factory was celebrated. But this time there is frustration instead of joy.
Before Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) visits the car manufacturer Ford, its works council is calling for the introduction of an electric car purchase bonus in order to stimulate weak demand. “Role models like France have shown that funding can be linked to income or provided in the form of a flat rate,” says an appeal from the central works council to politicians.
There was funding for buying or leasing electric vehicles in Germany until the end of 2023. After their abolition, demand for electric cars plummeted.
Ford had relied on vehicles with combustion engines for a long time and only invested in electromobility relatively late – but then with financial determination. The Cologne factory was converted for almost two billion euros and made electric. In June of this year, Ford finally started series production of its first European electric car in Cologne, which is intended for the mass market.
The timing was bad as the market was in a weak phase at the time. Sales of the Ford Explorer – a type of small electric off-road vehicle – have been sluggish since then. Ford is not alone in this; other traditional car companies are also having problems selling their electric vehicles.
In November, Ford announced massive job cuts plans; around a quarter of the currently around 12,000 jobs are to be eliminated by the end of 2027. The location had already experienced shrinkage in recent years; in 2018 it still had almost 20,000 jobs. The works council and IG Metall announced resistance to management’s latest cutbacks.
The visit by Chancellor Scholz, who was already a guest at Ford in June 2023 at the opening of the “Cologne Electric Vehile Center”, is now understood as a gesture of solidarity by the Social Democrat. The Ford employee representatives hope that the coalition of the SPD and the Greens, which does not have a majority in the Bundestag after the traffic light alliance broke with the FDP, can still provide important impetus for electromobility.
Scholz is meeting with the Ford management and the works council this morning for a discussion behind closed doors, after which he is scheduled to give a speech to thousands of listeners at the Ford Cologne works meeting starting at 10 a.m.
The Ford works council is also committed to expanding the charging infrastructure and “affordable” charging current so that more consumers recognize the advantages of electric cars and make appropriate purchasing decisions.
“As incumbent Chancellor, Olaf Scholz must now do everything in his power to support companies like Ford that have proactively embarked on the transformation to electromobility,” says the head of the Ford Germany works council, Benjamin Gruschka. He calls on politicians to set the right course for electromobility. “Let’s work together on a future-oriented automotive industry that secures jobs across the entire value chain and advances the energy transition.”