Workers at carmaker Ford's Cologne plant fear for future amid cuts

As drastic cuts loom at US automotive giant Ford's plant in Cologne, labour leaders worry that the future of the carmaker's German operations may now be in danger.

Ford recently announced plans to axe 2,900 jobs in Cologne over the next three years. That amounts to about a quarter of the roughly 12,000 workers currently employed by Ford in the western Germany city.

At a meeting of Ford Germany workers on Wednesday, works council leader Benjamin Gruschka described the announcement as a "brutal downsizing plan" that is "unacceptable" to workers.

The IG Metall trade union's spokesman at Ford, David Lüdtke, warned that the cuts could spell doom for the plant.

"If this plan is put into practice, it will mean the dismantling of our site and for us it will also mean dying in installments," Lüdtke said.

At times, the audience at the works meeting was dead silent. Some employees were crying. Labour leaders said around 8,000 workers attended the mass meeting.

Ford management has not publicly detailed the plans, but Lüdtke told journalists on Wednesday that the carmaker's plans are "no longer a typical downsizing" but involve eliminating entire divisions with hundreds of employees.

According to Lüdtke, Ford management told the trade union that "they only want to concentrate on their core business, and that is developing and building cars."

Everything else - "production services, components, vehicle parts, maintenance, repairs and servicing" - are all in danger of being cut altogether, he said.

Informed sources told dpa that Ford plans to cut areas such as plant security and the factory canteen, outsourcing those functions to an external service provider instead.

Cuts will also be applied to administration and development.

Electric car production, on the other hand is not expected to be directly affected. Ford produces two electric models in Cologne.

Around 2,500 people work in the electric vehicle production, although the company has imposed reduced hours due to weak sales.

Gruschka accused the management of making serious mistakes and that the employees would now have to "bleed" under the cuts.

"We need a vision for this site," said the labour leader. "We are calling for a concept for the future, we have to think differently about the car - electric cars are built differently than some other combustion engines used to be, they are a moving computer with four wheels."