Canceled editorial Blitz from 4.11.25 Stellantis plans drastic cutbacks in Europe:

That’s enough – Now it’s our turn to speak! Stellantis spreads good news in public: unit sales and sales revenues are rising again. But BLITZ has learned: Behind closed doors they are planning and discussing which plants are to be closed. Rüsselsheim, Eisenach, Termoli and Melfi in Italy, Poissy near Paris, Madrid and Glivice are candidates for closure. Further information underpins this assessment: in the pilot plant in Rüsselsheim no successor model is in sight. Opel CEO Huettl complains that the production of e-cars in Germany is too expensive. At the same time, Stellantis is investing $13 billion in the USA in new combustion engine car plants. They are talking behind our backs about the livelihood of tens of thousands of workers, of families and regions – and we are supposed to stay out of it? This is not acceptable!

“Shouldn’t we rather wait until we know something concrete?” No! A lesson from the self-organized strike of the Bochum Opel workers in 2004 is: We don’t wait until the plans are announced – we put our demands up and go forward! The result of the strike was that auto production continued for ten years and that the replacement parts warehouse still exists today. The Board of Directors is deeply unsettled. Its secrecy shows that it fears our resistance. In France, the mass protests have overthrown five governments, and the anti-labor pension reform has been swept off the table. IG Metall and ver.di have announced wide protests against the “autumn of cruelties” of Merz and Klingbeil. Many workforces are now faced with the decision to go on the offensive. This is our trump card! VW, Ford, Bosch: not a day passes by without new horror messages about job destruction and plant closures! More and more brutal exploitation of humans and nature, fascist oppression, war: this is the illusory way out of the capitalist crisis chaos. We must talk about a fundamentally different direction in the fight for a livable future! This includes the discussion about a socialist alternative.

We need clarity and conviction for our struggle. We’re to be sent down all kinds of wrong paths to keep us from fighting:

Wrong path 1: Back to combustion engine technology? This is a crime against Mother Earth. The environmental catastrophe has long since begun. It is pure desperation on the part of European car companies that have fallen far behind Chinese and US companies. Whether fossil fuel cars or electric: people have less and less money to buy the cars!

Wrong path 2: Hope that your own plant is not affected? And for that make further sacrifices? What makes us strong is that we do not let ourselves be divided, but take the offensive across the whole group and across borders for our worker interests.

Wrong path 3: Hope for high severance payments and an individual way out? This is short-sighted: At some point the money is gone, but the jobs are destroyed and the region is ruined. Already today, Stuttgart is spoken of as the new Detroit. Our youth needs a future!

Wrong path 4: Pin hope on the conversion to arms production? Where is the arms race going to take us? The preparation for war is actually about raw materials and markets. This cannot be the future for our youth. We must act against the ethnocentric and nationalist way of thinking spread by the fascists of the AfD. The boundaries do not run between countries and locations, but between those at the top and those under them!

The 3rd International Automotive Workers’ Conference in India in November also stands for this path. Colleagues from 20 countries will take part, also from Rüsselsheim, Eisenach and Bochum. This is the opportunity to promote the coordination of workers’ struggles in the auto industry.

The special situation calls for special measures! We must raise our demands and organize ourselves better: in IG Metall, but also independently in our plants:

No plant closures! Fight for every job and training place! Regular jobs for temporary workers! 30-hour workweek with full wage compensation as group agreement! Demand and take the right to strike! In the event of reprisals: One for all – all for one!

When the production lines stand still, this is the most effective way to put pressure on the Board. A year ago, VW had already decided to close Emden. But the struggle of our VW colleagues brought down the plans. Let’s stand up for a Europe-wide strike day as next step: Together we are a superior force!

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