Employee representatives call for nationwide “solidarity campaigns” at all locations.
At the car manufacturer Daimler, the works council and IG Metall are increasingly opposed to the restructuring and savings plans of CEO Ola Källenius. On Monday they called for a nationwide “solidarity campaign” at all locations. “Transformation, Covid, recession. The workforce makes its contribution to all challenges: qualifications, hygiene rules, savings. But it is not enough for the board,” criticized the general works council chairman Michael Brecht.
“The workers in the factories tremble and are afraid for their future. The administrative staff feels rejected,” Brecht said in a press release.
The works council and the union now want to collect 170,000 protest postcards and hand them over to the Board of Management – one for every Daimler employee in Germany. The car manufacturer has been pursuing a strict austerity course for a long time and had negotiated various agreements with the works councils, including the reduction of jobs and, most recently – due to the corona crisis – to reduce working hours.
Now, however, the works council is accusing the Daimler top management of acting only on one side. The announcement that unlimited 40-hour contracts would be terminated, so that those affected are only allowed to work the usual 35 hours per week and earn less accordingly, caused great resentment.
The planned cooperation with major shareholder Geely in the development of internal combustion engines is also met with little enthusiasm – the employees fear that the local factories will run out of capacity. In the “Handelsblatt” newspaper on Monday, Brecht accused the Daimler management of bad style. The management acts “absolutely resistant to advice”.
