A woman works in the assembly of 1.5 liter petrol engines at the Volkswagen plant in Salzgitter.
Image: Picture Alliance
Jobs have been lost in the German auto industry for years. Now there is a risk of a clear cut: Many suppliers are on the brink of bankruptcy. The manufacturers, who are currently making record profits, accept this with approval.
VIt doesn’t get much more symbolic. The manufacturer of the Mercedes stars is closing. 154 employees who, among other things, also produced radiator grilles for BMW are on the street, more than half of them are said to have been unskilled workers. That was it for the supplier BIA Forst, a subsidiary of BIA in Solingen.
The news didn’t make any big headlines this fall. Some small businesses just don’t make it, that’s how it is in a market economy. Such bankruptcies take place far below the public perception threshold. But therein lies the danger. Because jobs have been disappearing in the auto industry for years, step by step, every year. One crisis follows the next: pandemic, semiconductors, war in Ukraine, inflation, transport costs, commodity prices, energy. And all this while the industry says goodbye to the combustion engine after a century and has to figure out how to approach the electric age and who will play what role in it.