Ruhr Region Braces for Protests as Evonik Plans 1,850 Job Cuts Through Voluntary Departures

Evonik plans 1,850 job cuts via buyouts; IKEA and Fraunhofer also slash positions. Unions call street protests in Ruhr region for July.

A wave of job losses sweeping through Germany’s industrial heartland is set to trigger street demonstrations next month, as a coalition of 14 unions and associations launches what they call the “Ruhrpott-Rebellion.” The protests, scheduled for 3 July in Gelsenkirchen, 4 July in Duisburg, and culminating on 11 July with rallies in Dortmund and Essen, come in response to layoff announcements by several major employers.

At the center of the storm is the Essener specialty chemicals group Evonik, which plans to eliminate roughly 1,850 positions by the end of 2026. Most of those cuts are expected to happen this year. The company insists that no compulsory redundancies will occur — a no-compulsory-layoff agreement negotiated with unions runs through 2032. Instead, Evonik is relying on buyout packages and natural staff turnover.

The restructuring targets administrative bloat. CEO Christian Kullmann has been blunt about the need to slim the hierarchy and remove redundant management layers. The executive board itself will shrink. About 1,000 of the planned cuts are scheduled for 2026 alone.

The cost of shrinking the payroll is steep. Evonik will pay roughly 100 million euros in severance for the current phase alone. Personnel chief Thomas Wessel said the company paid around 97 million euros in redundancy compensation last financial year. Long-term savings from lower salary costs are expected to offset the outlay.

Investors took note. On 4 June, Evonik’s stock dropped 5.68% to €15.78. Analysts attributed most of the decline to a dividend adjustment rather than the restructuring itself. The company’s total market value stands at approximately €7.35 billion.

Evonik is not alone in downsizing. In Dortmund-Ellinghausen, furniture retail giant IKEA is cutting more than 250 jobs. The Swedish group is shuttering its IT subsidiary IKEA IT Germany GmbH by the end of October and shedding 170 additional positions in its procurement and logistics division.

Germany’s Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft also announced deep cuts: about 1,200 full-time posts will disappear, driven by structural deficits and a drop in third-party funding.

Even as layoffs mount, one large employer has shelved new investment without job cuts. Pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim recently halted planned investments of 900 million euros in Germany for the years 2027 through 2030, citing changes in the statutory health insurance system. Unlike Evonik, no forced redundancies are foreseen there.

The “Ruhrpott-Rebellion” coalition is calling on politicians and company boards to reverse course. Evonik, for its part, is forging ahead with the voluntary departure plan — betting that buyouts and natural attrition will be enough to meet the aggressive headcount targets.