Mercedes’ General Works Council Chairman, Ergun Lümali, demands a growth strategy from the company’s board to fully utilize the German plants. “We won’t be satisfied with less than two million vehicles a year – we need that to fully utilize the German locations” Lümali told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Monday edition). “And to achieve the number, we need growth, growth, growth.”
According to the employee representative, the auto manufacturer needs to rethink its approach to young customers, government business, and especially the Chinese market. “In all the forums where I sit and make decisions, I have clearly positioned myself on this topic: we can’t afford to miss anything. New strategies are necessary to regain lost market shares. Our strategy in China also needs to be reevaluated. We won’t accept anything that jeopardizes employment security, not even a little” he said.
Lümali questions the scale of the board’s communicated cost-cutting targets, which amount to between five and six billion euros annually. “The board will certainly confront us with personnel costs. But what’s realistic, implementable, and accepted by the team is what matters” the General Works Council Chairman said. “If the board says it wants to save a certain amount, it needs to back that up with specific measures. I say we do it the other way around. We analyze achievable cuts for the team and then see what the final number is.”
Lümali considers employment security to be safe, but the General Works Council is pushing the board to expand it instead. “Our ‘Zusi 2030’, which excludes forced layoffs until the end of 2029, cannot be unilaterally canceled by the board” Lümali said. “We’re in constant talks – and that means I’m urging the board to extend the employment security until 2035. I’m calling for talks on target scenarios for the German locations to define how we’ll move into the future with innovations, technologies, and models.