Page 2 - Markus Thal News Today

By Victoria Waldersee and Christina Amann BERLIN (Reuters) -Ford will decide by mid-February how many jobs to cut in Europe, a German union said on Tuesday, as reports surfaced that BYD and car contract manufacturer

The IG Metall is not only conducting a struggle against wage increases. It is actively advocating and implementing wage cuts and cheap labour in an industry where workers were once among the best paid.

At the factory meeting on Wednesday, the works council and IG Metall union, supported by Saarland’s Minister President Anke Rehlinger (Social Democrats, SPD), will do everything they can to seal the plant’s closure.

We can only be successful here in Saarlouis if we regard our struggle to defend the plant as part of the growing resistance around the world.

Workers showed little interest in last Thursday’s factory meeting at Ford Saarlouis. Asked what they expected from the meeting, most workers answered, “Nothing!”

Ever since the announcement of the plant closure, the works council and the IG Metall union have done everything in their power to prevent a serious struggle to defend all jobs.

In the four weeks since the closure of Ford’s Saarlouis plant was announced, the works council and IG Metall union have done everything to sabotage a fight to defend jobs. Anyone who opposes this is labelled a splitter.

Ford’s decision to halt production at its Saarlouis plant in 2025 is part of the biggest international assault on the social gains and rights of the working class since the 1930s.

Our closest allies are our fellow Ford workers in Valencia, Cologne, Craiova, Istanbul, the USA, and, above all, India. The most important step in mounting a principled defence of the Saarlouis plant is to build our rank-and-file action committee.

The works council and the unions reject any struggle to keep the plant open and are offering their services to Ford management to organise the smooth liquidation of the factory.