siemens layoff plan promises showdown
Last Updated : GMT 09:07:40
Egypt Today, egypt today
Egypt Today, egypt today
Last Updated : GMT 09:07:40
Egypt Today, egypt today

With unions

Siemens layoff plan promises showdown

Egypt Today, egypt today

Egypt Today, egypt today Siemens layoff plan promises showdown

Siemens workers feel they're getting a raw deal
Berlin - AFP

German industrial conglomerate Siemens is expected Thursday to announce a massive restructuring plan in its limping energy business that could see thousands of employees lose their jobs.

Unions have vowed to resist any layoffs, as they would follow on the heels of flourishing annual results for the sprawling group.

"We have to tackle structural issues in some individual businesses" in the coming financial year, chief executive Joe Kaeser said last week -- even as Siemens reported 11-percent growth in net profit for 2016-17, to 6.2 billion euros ($7.3 billion).

The Munich-based group -- whose products range from trains to wind turbines to medical equipment -- has already announced some 6,000 job cuts in its wind power unit.

Falling prices in major markets like India and the US bore most of the blame for the layoffs, Siemens said of the division, which merged with Spain's Gamesa earlier this year.

Meanwhile, German weekly Manager Magazin reported that Siemens' fossil fuels division, one of Siemens' largest with some 30,000 employees, could shutter 11 of its 23 sites worldwide.

Markets for the unit's products such as natural gas turbines were shrinking as a result of "global energy trends" away from fossil fuels, the group said.

Powerful union IG Metall fears managers could slash a four-digit number of jobs, most of them in Germany.

Kaeser, who has already presided over massive changes at Siemens since taking the reins in 2013, said only that "painful cuts" would be announced at a Thursday works council meeting.

He added that he would try to "soften the blow" by reassigning or retraining workers.

"We will have to start a discussion of creative forms of resistance" if bosses press on with site closures and layoffs, IG Metall board member Juergen Kerner warned in a Wednesday interview with WirtschaftsWoche magazine.

- 'Discontent and doubts' -

Many of the sites that could be on Kaeser's hit-list are in Germany's generally poorer eastern states, still not recovered from decades of Communist mismanagement and an arduous reunification with the west since 1990.

Among them is the famous "Dynamowerk" in Berlin's Spandau district, where Siemens was founded in the early 20th Century and which now employs 11,000 of its 351,000 workers.

Closing eastern sites "could stoke the discontent and the doubts" that helped far-right party Alternative for Germany into parliament with 12.6 percent of the vote in September elections, outgoing economy minister Brigitte Zypries wrote to Kaeser in a letter seen by Bild newspaper.

For its part, IG Metall accuses Siemens of being "irresponsible" by showing thousands of employees the door while the group as a whole is turning healthy profits -- and by failing to consult closely with workers, as was the norm at big German conglomerates for decades.

The group laid off some 15,000 people in 2013, partly as a consequence of Germany's decision to abandon nuclear energy in favour of renewables.

Under Kaeser's tenure, whole divisions have been abandoned or sold off, including household appliances, telecoms networks and nuclear and solar energy.

Tearing up a 2008 agreement that ruled out layoffs short of an "existential crisis" at the firm "would disquiet colleagues in all the divisions," union boss Kerner said, especially when "the group is doing well" overall.

Siemens workers don't see why they should suffer the fate of employees at its struggling major competitor General Electric.

The US firm announced Monday a restructuring of its own with thousands of job cuts around the globe, as it narrows its focus to aeronautics, health and energy.

egypttoday
egypttoday

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

siemens layoff plan promises showdown siemens layoff plan promises showdown



GMT 00:19 2012 Sunday ,19 February

Sky extends rugby league contract

GMT 12:34 2012 Tuesday ,07 February

New Kurdish satellite TV station goes on air

GMT 06:29 2014 Sunday ,31 August

Finally, Apple’s iWatch coming in September

GMT 04:51 2017 Thursday ,13 April

Huda Kattan among top 10 beauty influencers

GMT 08:47 2011 Monday ,25 July

Uncle Sam wants psychiatrists

GMT 09:51 2019 Monday ,19 August

Live a frustrating atmosphere in your career

GMT 19:15 2012 Monday ,20 February

Sound of music for Sky News Arabia

GMT 23:28 2012 Saturday ,25 February

Al Jazeera crowned RTS news channel of the year

GMT 09:09 2012 Friday ,13 July

Supreme Court warns Pak prime minister

GMT 19:14 2017 Monday ,06 February

Earthquake Hits Areas in Iran's Khuzestan

GMT 04:45 2017 Monday ,06 February

Chazelle wins top DGA prize for ‘La La Land’

GMT 08:18 2016 Wednesday ,03 February

Syria's war-pummelled textile industry

GMT 21:09 2016 Wednesday ,01 June

Suspected US troops attack Al Shabaab in Somalia

GMT 18:03 2015 Monday ,09 February

GCC assistant secretary-general meets Swiss official

GMT 09:27 2017 Saturday ,30 December

Cyprus president among nine candidates

GMT 02:02 2012 Friday ,10 August

Potato juice treat stomach ulcers

GMT 12:43 2013 Monday ,03 June

Mays Hamdan works on new song

GMT 06:11 2015 Thursday ,22 October

Comedian Chris Rock to host Oscars again

GMT 12:10 2012 Wednesday ,26 September

Marwa\'s plans after finishing film Christmas

GMT 06:23 2012 Friday ,13 April

Happy Feet Two

GMT 13:24 2012 Tuesday ,24 July

LeAnn Rimes in see-through top
 
 Egypt Today Facebook,egypt today facebook  Egypt Today Twitter,egypt today twitter Egypt Today Rss,egypt today rss  Egypt Today Youtube,egypt today youtube  Egypt Today Youtube,egypt today youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

egypttoday egypttoday egypttoday egypttoday
egypttoday egypttoday egypttoday
egypttoday
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
egypttoday, Egypttoday, Egypttoday