Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
broken clouds
weather
OMAN
23°C / 23°C
EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Shades of Detroit? Germany’s auto heartlandsin peril as ‘golden age’ fades

12312323
12312323
minus
plus

Michael Nienaber -


When Kristin and Thomas Schmitt took out a mortgage and bought a house last summer, the German couple’s dream looked as if it was coming true. Two months later, they learned that the tire factory where both work would be shut down early next year.


A malaise in Germany’s mighty automobile industry, caused by weaker demand from abroad, stricter emission rules and electrification, is starting to leave a wider mark on Europe’s largest economy by pushing up unemployment, eroding job security and hitting pay.


“It’s a nightmare. This is pulling the rug out from under our feet,” said Kristin Schmitt, 40, of the plant closure in the Bavarian region of Bamberg, one of Germany’s auto supplier hubs.


The couple, who have three children, still hopes managers at their Michelin tire factory change their mind, but the risk of unemployment looms large — and not only for the Schmitts.


The German auto sector is expected to cut nearly a tenth of its 830,000 jobs in the next decade, according to the VDA industry association.


Some think-tanks and government officials fear that the toll will be higher as electric cars provide less assembly work than combustion engine vehicles, simple work steps are replaced by automation and companies relocate production.


This is not yet 1970s Detroit, a US car centre that was plagued by urban decay as factory relocations, cheaper imports and higher fuel prices destroyed jobs.


But the danger is growing, automotive companies, workers, as well as regional and labour leaders, said


Different firms are taking different steps. At the Schmitts’ plant in Hallstadt, workers are trying to avoid forced layoffs; at a Bosch factory in nearby Bamberg, pay cuts and reduced hours have been agreed, as has investment in new fuel cell technology.


With pockets of rising joblessness in the affluent, auto-producing heartlands of Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg in southern Germany, there are serious implications for a country which relies on the car industry for roughly 5 per cent of its economic output and an important part of its national identity.


“Germany is entering uncharted waters. The transition could well mark the end of the golden age for cars as a mass employer,” said Stefan Bratzel, head of the Center of Automotive Management, a German research institute.


“For politics, it’s a ticking time bomb.” The outbreak of the coronavirus is adding to the crisis by disrupting global supply chains and dampening passenger car sales in China, an important market for German manufacturers.


Threats of mass lay-offs will be a defining feature of upcoming wage negotiations in the metalworking industry where unions are focusing more on job security than pay hikes.


“It could well be that we have passed the peak of automotive production,” Volkmar Denner, CEO of Germany’s largest car supplier Robert Bosch, said in January when he announced massive job cuts and a business review to cope with plunging profits.


POST-WAR ‘MIRACLE’


The Schmitts live north of the city of Bamberg, whose medieval and baroque architecture has been lovingly restored since the 1950s. It is typical of the well-heeled cities that prospered during the “economic miracle” of Germany’s post-war reconstruction.


Yet this region, which heavily depends on combustion engine technology, is facing a challenge that will have repercussions for Germany as a whole.


“We’re talking here about some 25,000 jobs in the region; that’s roughly 15 per cent of the overall workforce,” Bamberg mayor Andreas Starke said. “This shows how dependent the region is on combustion engines.” For the Schmitts — Thomas works on the assembly line and Kristin in the stockroom — and their more than 850 colleagues at the Michelin tire factory, the chances of keeping their jobs are looking grim.


Works council head Josef Morgenroth is trying to convince the management that the company can’t pull out of an earlier agreement which ruled out forced lay-offs until the end of 2022.


The local Michelin management declined to comment.


AUTOMOBILE CRISIS


To help workers affected by the car industry disruption, politicians, companies and labour unions have called on the government to support the shift to alternative technologies such as electric cars or hydrogen-powered fuel cells.


In a rare joint statement, automakers and unions said in January that Berlin must expand state-backed employment schemes, known as Kurzarbeit, to cover a longer pay subsidy period of up to 24 months as well as retraining in new skills such as building electric vehicle parts.


The German cabinet is expected to approve the more flexible Kurzarbeit rules next month. Under the scheme, companies can apply for state aid to avoid lay-offs and keep skilled workers for a limited time of up to 12 months. — Reuters


SHARE ARTICLE
arrow up
home icon