Strike That Broke 100-Year Peace Wins Record Severance as German Industry Shifts

Major German firms including Mahle, Ikea, and Evonik announce job cuts and plant closures amid industry struggles, with unions negotiating severance packages and warning strikes.

For eight days, workers at automotive supplier Mahle walked off the job for the first time since the company was founded a century ago. The result: severance payments of up to €250,000 and a total membership bonus pot of €3.25 million. Members of the IG Metall union at the Neustadt an der Donau plant voted in favour of a social tariff agreement that paves the way for the site’s closure in the first quarter of 2027.

The package includes a hardship fund, a transfer company to help workers find new jobs, and top-up payments that bring transitional short-time work benefits to 80 percent of net pay. Employees aged 60 or older can enter partial retirement. Mahle management, however, called the strike — the first in the company’s history — counterproductive to its future competitiveness.

A very different dynamic played out at Ikea’s customer service centre in Rostock. There, on 4 June 2026, details emerged of a social plan that Verdi has labelled “a light version”. The centre will close at the end of September 2026, affecting 280 staff. Severance is set at 0.75 gross monthly salaries per year of employment, rising to 0.85 for workers who waive the right to sue. Supplements are available for severely disabled employees, parents and those in further training. The union says the offer is inadequate given the financial strength of the parent group.

Ikea is also cutting 233 positions in Dortmund-Ellinghausen. Its entire German IT division will shut by the end of October 2026 and the purchasing department will be drastically scaled down by year-end. Tasks are being shifted to Warsaw. The measures are part of a global reduction of 850 jobs that the Inter IKEA Group announced in spring.

Industrial job losses are spreading across multiple sectors. The Groupe SEB-owned brand WMF will end production at three German factories — the Silit plant in Riedlingen and facilities in Hayingen and Diez. Around 250 employees are directly affected as the company searches for investors or alternative uses for the sites. Across Germany, Austria and Switzerland, roughly 600 of 4,400 positions are under review.

In Zweibrücken, engineering firm Siempelkamp is cutting 129 of 282 jobs at its Pallmann subsidiary — nearly half the workforce. The company plans to shift from building new machines to assembly and spare-part production, citing competition from China and the loss of the Russian market as reasons.

The Atlas works in Ganderkesee, Delmenhorst and Vechta are being taken over by Canadian manufacturer Buhler Versatile after the German company filed for insolvency on 1 June 2026. Notarisation is scheduled for 8 June. While the deal secures the sites, the union warns that up to 200 redundancies are likely during the transition.

Chemical giant Evonik has set aside around €100 million for severance payments. The job cuts are focused on management positions and form part of a bureaucracy-reduction programme.

Meanwhile, Verdi has called nationwide warning strikes in the retail and wholesale sectors for 4 and 5 June 2026. Protests and rallies are planned in major cities including Berlin, Bochum, Erfurt and Saarbrücken. The union is demanding a 7 percent pay rise, or at least €225 more per month. In Berlin and Brandenburg, where talks covering 220,000 workers began on 1 June without result, Verdi wants a 12-month contract. Employers are offering a 24-month deal: 2 percent initially, followed by another 1.5 percent. The next rounds are set for 8 June (retail in Baden-Württemberg) and 12 June (wholesale in Lower Saxony and Bremen).