Future prospects for thousands of jobs: An investor has been found for the Ford plant in Saarlouis, which will cease production in 2025. The carmaker announced on Friday that the first agreements had been signed. “This is an excellent basis for further negotiations with the potential to create around 2,500 jobs in Saarlouis,” said Ford Germany boss Martin Sander. The name of the investor was not mentioned.
The plant currently has around 4,400 Ford employees. There are also around 1,300 employees in neighboring supplier companies. The workforce was informed at a works meeting. Sander underpinned the goal of “redesigning the Saarlouis plant and creating future employment opportunities.” We have come a big step closer to this goal.
The negotiations had dragged on for months. Saarland’s Economics Minister Jürgen Barke was now relieved. A “milestone on the way to securing the future of the Ford location” has been reached, said the SPD politician.
Intensive negotiations have already taken place
According to the minister, it is now a matter of detailed questions about the design and no longer the fundamental question of whether there is any interest at all. You have intensive negotiations behind you. More are to come. “We’re going to hang in there with everything we’ve got,” said Barke. Because there is a great willingness on the part of the state and also on the part of investors to get the joint project over the finish line – this is also due to the responsibility towards the employees.
Employee representatives also made positive comments. “We haven’t reached our goal yet, but we’re on the right track,” said the plant’s works council chairman, Markus Thal. “We are still on the track that we came here for jobs and not for the quick processing of the location, we have come a good deal closer to this goal today.”
The hanging game is probably over
The rather gloomy mood among employees had already brightened somewhat in the past few days. IG Metall canceled a ballot that had actually been planned. On Friday, however, the union emphasized that such a step “should continue to be carried out at any time in the event that the process fails”.
Ford is under pressure. The US car company swung relatively late to an electric course. While the Cologne plant is being converted with investments worth billions in order to manufacture e-cars there, Saarlouis is being abandoned. The search for investors became a stalemate for Ford, which increased frustration among the workforce. Now the impasse is probably over – provided that the pending negotiations are successfully concluded.
