Frankfurt am Main – According to IG Metall and the General Works Council, ALSTOM is once again violating the “Future Collective Bargaining Agreement”—which covers six of these plants—by implementing its latest downsizing program involving over 90 job cuts in the indirect departments of twelve plants. Although IG Metall terminated the “Future” collective bargaining agreement over four months ago, the company insists on its validity in order to continue withholding employees’ vacation pay. For IG Metall and the General Works Council, these job cuts are further proof that ALSTOM never intended to make its German sites fit for the future in accordance with the collective bargaining agreement and to secure new orders for them. In order to continue withholding vacation pay, ALSTOM has filed a class-action lawsuit against IG Metall. The first court hearing on whether the termination was lawful is scheduled for mid-October. The company apparently hopes this will allow it to avoid thousands of lawsuits from employees demanding payment of their vacation pay.
Furthermore, at the end of September, the company once again announced strategic realignments that are expected to affect the Hennigsdorf, Mannheim, and Görlitz plants, as well as possibly other locations. According to the plans, Hennigsdorf is set to lose most of its new-vehicle manufacturing, while Mannheim will lose its production entirely. The Görlitz plant, which represents 175 years of railway tradition, is to be sold. This will result in the loss of the site’s expertise in body-in-white manufacturing. In the view of IG Metall and the General Works Council, ALSTOM’s strategy of investing heavily in so-called “best-cost countries” to shift production there is leading to significantly more delays and quality defects compared to other major players in the industry. Employees at the German plants are forced to compensate for these shortcomings, in some cases with considerable extra effort and corresponding negative consequences here in Germany.
Due to the employer’s inaction, IG Metall is demanding the return of the employees’ vacation pay, which was included in the “Future” collective bargaining agreement: Approximately 3,500 employees have filed claims in this regard, which are pending as lawsuits before the relevant labor courts. German management had already announced at the end of May that it did not intend to pay the vacation pay, which was actually due in June. This payment would have had to be made in full or in part if, as stipulated in the collective bargaining agreement, certain productivity targets had been met. Furthermore, the company has so far failed to plausibly calculate the potential payback for the last fiscal year (April 2023 to March 2024) in accordance with the collective bargaining agreement. Since the necessary provisions for repayment were not set aside, ALSTOM apparently never intended to make the repayment in the first place. Furthermore, ALSTOM did not pay employees the Collective Bargaining Supplement B (T-ZUG B) in June, citing the company’s financial situation. However, this collective bargaining benefit was specifically excluded from employee contributions when the Future Collective Bargaining Agreement was concluded and accepted by the employer.
René Straube, Chair of the ALSTOM General Works Council: “It is clear today that this was all just a stalling tactic: Management ostensibly carried out a few symbolic gestures in accordance with the Future Collective Bargaining Agreement while, behind the scenes, pursuing its very own agenda for Germany. This has deliberately and severely damaged the foundation of trust with the General Works Council and the workforce. We are now headed for a tough confrontation.”
Jochen Homburg, chief negotiator for IG Metall: “Rail is the future. There is no better form of mass transit that protects both the environment and our resources. It is incomprehensible that ALSTOM would take such a stance against its own employees and their representatives in such a future-oriented market. This is how they are depriving themselves of opportunities and their employees of their rightful wages.”
The “Future Collective Bargaining Agreement” covered the six facilities: Hennigsdorf (including Hennigsdorf Drives), Görlitz, Bautzen, Siegen, and Kassel. To secure the sites and jobs, the employees had agreed to contribute financial funds—primarily their vacation pay—initially as a form of insurance. In return, the company had committed to making investments in the German sites to restore their competitiveness after years of neglect. However, ALSTOM did not implement this as planned. IG Metall was consequently forced to terminate the collective bargaining agreement and is now demanding the return of the employees’ withheld funds. The employers’ association Gesamtmetall filed a lawsuit against what it considers to be an unlawful termination. IG Metall’s termination of a forward-looking collective bargaining agreement—forced by ALSTOM’s inaction—is unprecedented.
