17 December, 2009In November Daimler AG announced the plans to shift the C-Class Model from the plant in Sindelfingen to the Alabama plant in the USA. Thanks to the union efforts workers managed to keep their jobs.
GERMANY: In November the management board of Daimler AG announced their plans to shift production of the Mercedes-Benz C-Class model designed for the U.S. market to the plant in Alabama, USA. This announcement caused a lot of anxiety and worries among 37,000 employees of the plant in Sindelfingen, Germany. In fact according to the works council such decision put in danger 3,000 jobs and could potentially affect the decision on further production of the E-Class model on the German site.
The works council together with the IMF German affiliate IG Metall organized a number of protest actions including short-term strikes and a few demonstrations inside and outside of the company; each action gathered about 10,000 to 15,000 workers of the plant.
Following the pressure made by the works council together with the union on Wednesday, 9 December the management signed a shop agreement excluding involuntary dismissals until December 31, 2019 for the entire workforce of the Sindelfingen plant.
In addition the Sindelfingen plant is confirmed as the production site for luxury cars within the Daimler Group. 2,700 jobs will be created through additional products including Mercedes-Benz SL-Class. Also the management plans include 500 non-manual workers involved in temporary support activities for the Research & Development Department and Production Planning to be employed on permanent basis.