Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on July 11, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleFord plans voluntary redundancies at its Cologne plant amid EV challenges, impacting over 10,000 workers. The agreement includes generous severance payments.
By Rachel More
BERLIN (Reuters) -Ford has agreed to a job protection scheme at its Cologne plant covering over 10,000 workers, with voluntary redundancies planned in response to the sluggish uptake of electric cars, the company and German employee representatives said on Friday.
Ford has been undergoing a painful restructuring in Europe, with cuts in Cologne and the upcoming closure of its Saarlouis plant dealing a fresh blow to Germany's prestige as a carmaking hub.
Ford said in a statement that the framework, valid through 2032, includes 2,900 job cuts announced by the company in November last year.
"The job cuts are primarily based on voluntary redundancies. The severance payments are generous and significantly better than usual in the automotive industry," works council head Benjamin Gruschka said in a statement.
The IG Metall union said the future of Cologne production remained unclear but welcomed the "safety net."
Ford, which invested $2 billion in transforming its Cologne site into an EV production hub, has called on the German government to provide more incentives and better charging infrastructure to help drivers transition to electric.
IG Metall said the agreement for the Cologne site included the option for workers impacted by the cuts to trade places with people from other parts of the company willing to leave.
The deal is still to be approved in a workers' ballot.
(Reporting by Rachel More, editing by Thomas Seythal)
Ford has agreed to a job protection scheme at its Cologne plant covering over 10,000 workers, which includes voluntary redundancies.
The framework includes 2,900 job cuts that were announced by the company in November of the previous year.
The IG Metall union welcomed the 'safety net' provided by the job protection scheme, although the future of production in Cologne remains unclear.
Ford has invested $2 billion to transform its Cologne site into an electric vehicle production hub.
The agreement allows impacted workers to trade places with employees from other parts of the company who are willing to leave.
Explore more articles in the Headlines category
