Markus Thal News Today

Ford has been in the process of closing or reorganising entire plants in Europe, the US, Brazil, Russia and India for four years in order to increase profits at the expense of the workforce. However, works council representatives and the IG Metall have done everything in their power for years to ensure that resistance to this has come to nothing.

IGM and the works council are urging the workforce to accept an “overall packet” in a ballot on February 22. This would be the final nail in the coffin that the works council head is hammering into the plant and would mean that auto production in Saarlouis will be history by the end of 2025.

The limited strikes are an integral part of the plan for the closure of the factory that the works council headed by Markus Thal and IG Metall is implementing on behalf of the company.

To ensure that their returns continue to rise, shareholders are now unequivocally demanding that the 800,000 or so workers employed by manufacturers and their suppliers must take a beating.

The works council and the IG Metall have devoted themselves lock, stock and barrel to defending the interests of the Ford corporation and its owners.

It is now essential for workers to take the initiative and wage a serious fight to defend all remaining jobs at the plant. The plant is still standing, production is still running. It is now that a strike and a real struggles must be discussed and organized.

Also, every dealer network wants a Kia showroom, and a new Ford plant rises while another winds down, all in The Morning Shift for March 30.

Behind the backs of the workforce, the general works council and management at Ford have agreed to cut 3,800 jobs across Europe over the next three years.

Chinese manufacturer BYD is on a shortlist of buyers for Ford's assembly plant in Saarlouis, Germany. The p...

At three extraordinary factory meetings on Monday, some 14,000 workers at Ford’s Cologne plants were told by the works council where jobs were being cut.