Trade union seeks alternatives for Michelin's German tire plants

FRANKFURT, Germany—German trade union IGBCE and local works councils have developed alternative concepts for Michelin's tire manufacturing plants that are set for closure by the end of next year.

The concepts envisage the creation of competence centers and more specialized production at the three sites in order to improve Michelin's competitiveness, IGBCE said in a Feb. 15 update. The alternatives propose consolidation of plants and the reduction of the number of employees in order to reduce costs.

"With these alternative concepts, job cuts can be significantly reduced and the tire manufacturer's factories can be maintained," said Matthias Hille, IGBCE corporate manager.

The alternatives can "convincingly demonstrate" that the closures and job cuts "would not only be socially irresponsible, but also unacceptable for economic reasons," Hille added.

The French tire manufacturer announced in November last year that it would gradually stop production at three of its German locations by the end of 2025, affecting more than 1,500 employees.

Based on Michelin's plans, tire factories in Karlsruhe and Trier as well as the new truck tires and semi-finished products plant in Homburg are set for closure. The group's customer center is also to be relocated from Karlsruhe to Poland.

Michelin's Homburg plant employs 843 people in the production of truck tires and semi-finished products—including 480 in truck tire retreading and related operations.

With 479 employees, the Karlsruhe plant is focused on the production of tires for small and medium-sized trucks and semi-finished products.

The Trier unit, meanwhile, employs 88 people in the production of bead cores for passenger car tires.

The company cited the import of cheap truck tires from low-wage countries and rising production costs as reasons for the closures.

According to the IGBCE release, representatives from the works council of the affected locations presented their alternatives to Michelin's management team on Feb. 9.

Presenting his findings, Lukas Kopaczewski, chairman of the works council at the Karlsruhe unit, said the site will be able to achieve C02-neutral manufacturing as early as 2025.

"It would be economic nonsense to completely shut down the innovative Karlsruhe plant and forego the unique knowledge and potential of our workforce," he added.

As an alternative, he suggested plans to continue operating the location with a reduced workforce, to establish "a talent factory" and to further specialize in light trucks and truck tires.

A similar argument was put forward for Michelin's customer contact center area by Jens Neubauer, chairman of the works council for sales, logistics and the central areas.

The planned rapid relocation to Poland, Neubauer warned, will see the loss of decades of experience and will impact customers.

As part of their investigation, the works council provided an analysis of comparable results for bead core production at the Trier plant.

According to works council chairman Stefan Bungert, the plant in Trier is "doing significantly better in all key metrics than other locations in Europe with comparable production.

"In addition, it has by far the lowest manufacturing costs with the best quality," he added.

Among other things, Bungert proposed running the plant as part of Michelin's Bad Kreuznach operations and expanding it into a competence center for bead core production.

For Homburg, the largest of the three affected locations, the works council chairman Hans-Joachim Jordan called for the further strengthening and expansion of the retreading of truck tires.

He urged Michelin to continue the production of new tires and the semi-finished products with a reduced team and with "clear focus on the demanding tire dimensions."

"Michelin produces truck tires in Homburg on the most modern equipment in the world," Jordan said. Not continuing to use these facilities, he added, "violates all economic reason."

Michelin management has agreed to examine the alternative proposals in an "open-ended" manner in the next few weeks.

The negotiation commission is planned to meet again at the beginning of March.