Friday 29th January 2021
No job guarantee
Alstom expects a long Bombardier renovation
With the merger between the French group Alstom and the Berlin-based rail division Bombardiers, the world's second largest train manufacturer has emerged. Cuts in the many employees in Germany are not planned, but the restructuring of Bombardier will take a few years.
The French rail technology manufacturer Alstom has taken over the train division of Bombardier and now wants to stand up to the Chinese world market leader CRRC. For Alstom and the industry, the multi-billion dollar merger was a "unique moment," said CEO Henri Poupart-Lafarge in Saint-Ouen near Paris.
The new Alstom Group has sales of around 15.7 billion euros, an order book worth 71.1 billion euros and employs around 75,000 people in 70 countries. According to industry information, the new group is number two worldwide with strong pillars in Europe and North America. The takeover, which has been in preparation for a long time, was due for 5.5 billion euros.
According to Poupart-Lafarge, Germany is an important market: "With 9,000 employees in Germany and development centers with state-of-the-art technology, we can offer all mobility providers tailored solutions that are agreed in Germany and delivered from there," he said. "This is important." An independent regional organization is planned, which will also include Switzerland and Austria.
IG Metall demands clarity about jobs
When asked about a renovation in Germany and the future of the plants, Poupart-Lafarge said that all the strengths of the two now combined companies would be needed to process the orders. "The renovation will take four or five years," said Poupart-Lafarge to the "Süddeutsche Zeitung". The reason for this is the ongoing orders from Bombardier, they remain loss-making. "The really pressing problem is that they always deliver their trains late," said Poupart-Lafarge in an interview. Quality deficiencies at Bombardier have led to delivery delays on ICE trains for Deutsche Bahn in recent years.
Poupart-Lafarge refused to issue a job guarantee for the approximately 6,500 Bombardier employees in Germany. "That would be a privilege to the Italian or British employees," he said. "But I can assure you: no cuts are planned."
Brandenburg's Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke was confident about the future of the plant. "This is of great importance for Hennigsdorf and for the entire capital region as an important location for rail vehicle construction," said the SPD politician. The state government accompanied the merger process and gained the impression that the negotiating partners tried to find a fair balance of interests, said Minister of Economics Jörg Steinbach. The interests of the employees were always kept in mind.
The IG Metall trade union called for clarification on jobs and locations as soon as possible. "The workforce maintained production under the most difficult pandemic conditions and did their part to ensure that the merger ran smoothly," said the IG Metall district manager for Berlin-Brandenburg, Birgit Dietze.
The Hennigsdorf location has yet to be sold
The Alstom boss entrusts former Siemens manager Müslüm Yakisan with the restructuring of Bombardier's loss-making business in Germany. With immediate effect, he will lead Alstom's activities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Since Alstom now has roughly the same number of employees in France and Germany, the two countries are balanced, says Poupart-Lafarge. He does not expect Franco-German power struggles within the group. "It won't be like Airbus," he said. "There will be no confrontation with us."
After a corona-related decline in orders, Poupart-Lafarge expects business to pick up again this year. "For 2021 I expect a catch-up effect," he said. "In the end, the crisis won't have a huge impact on us." Poupart-Lafarge also emphasized, "the climate crisis will remain. And it forces us to mobility that is cleaner." Therefore, he is convinced of the good prospects for the industry.
The EU competition watchdog gave the green light for the deal last July. The condition for this was that the new group surrendered production facilities, including at the Hennigsdorf site near Berlin. According to earlier information, negotiations are in progress with the Czech company Skoda Transportation. Alstom will complete the sales as agreed with Brussels, the French insured. An Alstom plant in Alsace is also affected.
In the train division of the Canadian Bombardier Group, there had been several restructurings in recent years. Bombardier is particularly well represented in eastern Germany. 2200 permanent employees and temporary workers work in Hennigsdorf near Berlin and 1000 in Bautzen. There are 800 employees in Görlitz – as well as at the West German locations in Mannheim and Siegen. In Kassel there are 600. Smaller locations are Braunschweig and Berlin.
About two years ago, an initially planned merger between Alstom and the Siemens train division failed due to resistance from EU competition officials. This veto had caused considerable resentment in Berlin and Paris.
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