Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on May 30, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleThyssenkrupp's restructuring could cut 20,000 jobs, warns IG Metall. The company plans to spin off key divisions, impacting steel and submarine units.
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's IG Metall union sees around a fifth of jobs at Thyssenkrupp at risk, a senior official was quoted as saying on Friday, following the conglomerate's recent plans to turn into a holding company.
On Monday, Thyssenkrupp said it would pursue plans to sell minority stakes in three of its five divisions, with the other two - submarines and steel - already in the process of being spun off or partly divested.
"The plans could see more than 20,000 employees' positions slashed," Juergen Kerner, deputy chairman of both the IG Metall union and Thyssenkrupp's supervisory board, told Sueddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) newspaper.
Thyssenkrupp has already announced plans to cut or outsource up to 11,000 jobs at its steel division TKSE and plans to slash around 1,800 jobs at its automotive unit.
Kerner said that Thyssenkrupp's supervisory board would meet in June to approve the spin-off of the group's submarine and warship division TKMS, which is planned for later this year.
Turning to steel, Kerner criticised Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, who last year bought a 20% stake in TKSE and is in talks to acquire another 30% contingent on a job cuts deal with workers.
"I now consider Mr Kretinsky less and less to be the right buyer," Kerner said, adding the billionaire had resisted sharing his plans for the steel business for more than a year.
(Writing by Friederike Heine and Christoph Steitz; Editing by Matthias Williams and Susan Fenton)
Around 20,000 jobs are at risk according to the IG Metall union.
Thyssenkrupp plans to sell minority stakes in three divisions, with significant cuts in the steel and automotive units.
Juergen Kerner stated that the plans could see more than 20,000 positions slashed, criticizing the lack of transparency from potential buyers.
The supervisory board is scheduled to meet in June to approve the spin-off of the submarine and warship division.
Daniel Kretinsky is a Czech billionaire who bought a 20% stake in Thyssenkrupp's steel division and is negotiating to acquire an additional 30% contingent on a job cuts deal.
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