Germany: As Tagesspiegel cites Alstom’s employees, the company’s Görlitz and Hennigsdorf plants for tram, metro, multiple unit projects are threatened with closure.
The Görlitz manufacturing facility with 700 jobs is producing double-deck trains for Israel Railways and Deutsche Bahn as well as trams for Leipzig, with these orders to be fulfilled by the middle of 2026. Then, the work processes could be relocated to Katowice and Wroclaw in Poland. As for the Hennigsdorf plant, which employs 2,000 workers now, it could be restructured into a service centre.
Alstom’s representative in Germany denied the information about suspending the rolling stock manufacturing in Görlitz, while noting the production slowing down in Germany. The spokesperson also stressed that Alstom has a collective bargaining agreement with Germany’s biggest trade union IG Metall. The so-called “Future Contract” ensuring the workload for the plants is in force till 2026.
Meanwhile, in May, IG Metall announced the termination of the contract for its part. According to the agreement, almost 9,000 employees were to refuse their holiday pay worth €34 mln in exchange for Alstom’s commitment to invest 2% of the turnover in Germany in the German production facilities each year. IG Metall is filing lawsuits accusing the French manufacturer not adhering to the obligations. But Alstom does not admit the termination of the bargaining agreement. Earlier in 2022, IG Metall initiated a number of strikes with the participation of Alstom, Siemens Mobility, and Stadler workers.
Previously Bombardier Transportation’s Görlitz and Hennigsdorf manufacturing facilities were taken over by Alstom as a result of the merger in 2021. The intellectual property rights to the Talent 3 trains along with the relevant part of the Hennigsdorf site went to CAF according to the conditions set by the European Commission for the Bombardier Transportation purchase agreement. It is worth mentioning that the plant in Derby (UK), acquired by Alstom the same way, is also threatened with closure for the lack of orders. While claiming that the contracts inherited from Bombardier Transportation are mostly unprofitable and difficult to implement, the French manufacturer has also announced its plans for optimisation of the acquired assets.
