Continental: Massive cutbacks with the help of the trade unions
Protest against the closure of the Continental plant in Karben, Hesse, 15 April 2021 (Photo WSWS)
What the IG Metall and IG BCE unions, as well as the media, are praising as a “solid negotiation result” and a “great success” is the sealing of a long-planned attack. To save at least €1 billion a year, 30,000 jobs will be eliminated throughout the company and in Germany alone 13,000 jobs will be cut.
Several plants are to be closed and the closures will only be delayed for a short time. The closure of the tyre manufacturing plant in Aachen, for example, has been postponed from the end of 2021 to the end of 2022. Last September, there were still 1,800 employees in Aachen and of these, hundreds are now already being laid off via severance agreements and non-renewal of temporary contracts. By the end of the year, only 500 workers will remain to wind up operations at the plant.