What employees in the automotive industry accuse management of

IG Metall Automobile Action Day: "Workers Shouldn't Have to Pay for Mismanagement"

Whether at suppliers or manufacturers – concern is growing among employees in the automotive industry. At the IG Metall action day, they are venting their frustration – including in Baden-Württemberg.

Antonio Lupo thinks it's too easy to always take the red pen to workers first. "We are here to defend our collective agreements," says the 53-year-old. Because he sees them under threat. Lupo is the works council chairman at automotive supplier Mahle in Eislingen and part of the delegation demonstrating today in the Fils Valley, southeast of Stuttgart, against job cuts and in favor of preserving jobs and collective bargaining standards in the industry. The action is part of the nationwide automotive action day organized by the union.

It is a small delegation around Lupo; the works councils of the other automotive suppliers present have also sent few people. Today is not about numbers, says IG Metall managing director Michael Kocken. It's about a message. That's why the participants' attention is focused on the roughly four square meters of asphalt on the roadside in front of them. 200 toy cars are arranged there, along with roughly as many toy figurines. With small signs bearing messages in support of preserving the 35-hour work week. This has been enshrined in collective agreements in the metal and electrical industry for decades – but now the union sees it under threat.

The Fils Valley Is Losing Its Automotive Industry

Politicians and employers have together identified workers as their target during the automotive industry crisis, says Kocken. "They demand that we retire later, work longer, become cheaper, and call our collective agreements into question." Yet employee wage costs account on average for only around 17 percent of company expenses. "Nevertheless, we're now supposed to pay the price for what employers have been neglecting for years."

The Fils Valley is symptomatic of this: for decades it has been one of the traditional industrial regions in Baden-Württemberg's "automotive heartland," shaped by metalworking, mechanical engineering, and numerous automotive suppliers. Once, suppliers lined up one after another here, and there was hardly a car from nearby Stuttgart that didn't contain a part manufactured here.

Yet in the past year alone, 1,800 jobs were lost in the region. At Allgaier in Uhingen, once an industrial heavyweight of the region, around 600 people lost their jobs when the plant closed at the end of 2025. Other companies also cut positions: foam supplier Neveon closed its site in Ebersbach, affecting around 100 employees. At ContiTech in Eislingen, around ten percent of the workforce is set to be cut, amounting to job losses in the mid-double-digit range. "Our entire region is affected when the automotive industry goes under," warns Kocken.

20,000 People Protest at Mercedes

Many more people, the same message: At Mercedes-Benz in Sindelfingen, 20,000 employees gathered for a rally on Tuesday morning according to IG Metall – the largest in Baden-Württemberg. They too are holding up placards. "Ola out" reads one – a clear message directed at company chief Ola Källenius and his austerity course.

The board has completely lost touch with its employees, says works council chairman Ergun Lümali. "We need board members who stand by their workforce and don't take every opportunity to say that employees must make sacrifices. If anyone is going to make sacrifices, they should start at the top."

Nobody wants to sugarcoat the situation facing the automotive industry in Germany and Europe. But if all cost-cutting measures come at the expense of workers rather than others — such as shareholders, who continue to receive high dividends — the union will not go along with it. The employee side has already done enough through past austerity programs. They are currently not prepared to accept further cuts.

Mercedes already has extensive cost-cutting measures underway: the company is reducing headcount through severance packages, cutting management positions and outsourcing tasks. Material and production costs are also set to fall. In June, Mercedes additionally deferred a contractual special payment for around 90,000 employees until 2027 and demanded longer working hours without wage compensation.

Wage cost comparison causes a stir

Most recently, a report in Wirtschaftswoche caused a sensation: according to the report, Mercedes is confronting its German employees with comparisons of labor costs and working hours at foreign plants. For instance, one hour of labor at the US plant in Tuscaloosa is said to be nearly 18 percent cheaper than in Germany, and at the plant in Cugir, Romania, as much as 82 percent cheaper.

Rather than using such comparisons to stoke a climate of fear, what is needed are clear statements, says works council chairman Lümali. "What does the board intend to do with the German sites? We want to know what investments will be made here, which products will come to our sites in Germany, and we want to know what the future of Mercedes looks like," he demands.

In the Fils Valley, some 50 kilometers away, the toy car protest by suppliers ends after just over an hour. The next time, promises IG Metall executive Kocken, there will once again be more real people present. By "next time," he means the collective bargaining negotiations in the metal and electrical industry. These begin on October 7. With today's automotive action day, IG Metall has already provided a foretaste of what the tone in the negotiations might be like.