Ford’s Cologne facility, once a cornerstone of the automaker’s European operations, is moving towards closure as mass layoffs intensify. From January 2026, the plant will operate on a single shift, a move that workers fear is the beginning of the end.
Just two weeks after IG Metall and the plant’s works council signed off on the elimination of 2,900 jobs, management has now announced the scrapping of an additional 1,000 positions.
Management has blamed disappointing sales of its electric Capri and Explorer SUVs, both produced in Cologne, for the downsizing. This comes despite Ford’s €2 billion investment to retool the site for electric vehicle production, an investment that was touted as securing the plant’s future. Today, of the more than 20,000 employees who once staffed Cologne, fewer than 11,500 remain. With the latest cuts, the workforce could soon shrink to around 7,000.
The wave of redundancies is being pushed through via a so-called “social contract” designed by IG Metall and the works council. Under its terms, employees who refuse a severance package face progressively worse offers before being subjected to compulsory redundancies. Critics within the workforce have condemned the process as divisive and coercive.
For many, the pattern has become all too familiar: every job-cutting programme presented as a guarantee of Ford’s long-term competitiveness in Germany has only led to more cuts. In recent years, Cologne has seen thousands of production jobs vanish, followed by deep cuts in administration and R&D. Now, production itself is under direct threat once again.
Union leaders argue that Cologne “needs a new concept” as Ford’s EVs remain too costly for mass-market success. But for many workers, “new concept” translates to further cost-cutting at their expense. Earlier this year, more than 93 per cent of Cologne’s workforce voted to strike to defend jobs—only for IG Metall to call off industrial action after just 24 hours in favour of negotiations. The resulting deal, hailed by union leaders as a “safety net for everyone,” began unravelling within weeks.
With each new round of redundancies, the Cologne plant’s future grows dim. Without decisive resistance, the factory that once employed tens of thousands may soon become the latest casualty of Ford’s long withdrawal from Europe.
