Plants in Göttingen and Osterode will be merged, and almost 270 employees will be laid off as a result of the move.
The Upper Austrian technology group Miba will close its plain bearing plant in Braunschweig, Germany, next year. 270 jobs will be lost. In addition, the plants in Göttingen and Osterode will be merged. The company confirmed a corresponding report in the “Oberösterreichische Nachrichten” (OÖN, Tuesday). The restructuring was justified to establish an innovation center for renewable energies in Osterode.
The previous production in Braunschweig is to be gradually shut down from summer 2021 and continued at other locations. For works council Martin Grun, however, the plant closure came as a complete surprise. From his point of view, the order situation was “almost” at normal level, he told the OÖN.
According to Miba, however, the plant has been suffering for years from the global decline in demand for the plain bearings produced there for 2-stroke and 4-stroke engines. The pandemic has exacerbated the situation. The plant could therefore “not be operated sustainably economically”. At Miba, it was emphasized that the company wanted fair and socially responsible dealings with its employees.
The approximately 100 employees at the Göttingen plant, which will be merged with the one in Osterode (around 150 employees), are to be offered the opportunity to move to the Osterode plant 35 kilometers away, where industrial plain bearings for large compressors, turbines and gearboxes are currently being manufactured become.
In future, however, the know-how for the more efficient use of sustainable energy sources is to be bundled in Osterode. At Miba, it is expected that not only will the demand for renewable energies increase, but that this process will also be fueled by the rescue programs in the wake of the pandemic.
In 2019, the Upper Austrian Miba and the German Zollern Group received ministerial approval for their planned joint venture in the field of plain bearings, which had previously been rejected by the Federal Cartel Office. Economics minister Peter Altmaier (CDU) issued the condition that 50 million euros must be invested.
Miba brought its five production sites for engine plain bearings into the joint venture and now holds 74.9 percent. The German Zollern contributed one engine sliding bearing and two industrial sliding bearing plants, including the plants in Braunschweig and Osterode. The required investment will take place, according to Miba, so that one is “in plan”, but a location guarantee was not part of the ministerial approval.
