Ford is cutting its workforce in Germany and the United Kingdom in particular. There, respectively, 2,300 and 1,200 jobs would disappear. The car manufacturer mainly wants to focus on schemes for voluntary departure. According to Ford, the intervention is necessary because of the transition to electric cars. The manufacturer wants to completely phase out combustion engines in Europe by 2035. The production of electric vehicles requires personnel with a different profile and is less complex, which also requires fewer workers.
Ford employs about 14,000 people in Cologne, Germany. The unions there had already said three weeks ago after a works council that up to 3,200 jobs would be lost in the factory. In the United Kingdom, the carmaker has 7,000 employees at sites in Dagenham, Halewood and Dunton. In the past, Ford also had a factory in Belgium. At the time, Ford Genk was the largest employer in Limburg and the second largest car assembly plant in our country. At the final closure on December 18, 2014, 6,000 people lost their jobs.
