After six weeks of negociations, US american mobile crane manufacturer Terex Cranes Germany GmbH has negotiated a deal with the unions PfalzMetall and IG Metall on a collective agreement securing the future. This cleared the way for a comprehensive restructuring of three plants and for maintaining the mobile crane production in the next years.

Orth Kluth provided leading advice for Terex on the conception and the project implementation on the negociations of the collective agreement and also of the reconciliation of interests and the social compensation plan, which were negociated at the same time.

According to the agreement, several production units will be transferred to eastern Europe, one of the plants will be closed, and the remaining manufacturing process will be restructured entirely. Thanks to the provision of comprehensive training and qualification programmes, employees can switch to new positions in the remaining plants thus maintaining the know-how.

The staff cuts of around 500 of the 1.700 employees as they were still discussed in december 2016 can therefore be avoided. Terex obtains waivers from the zonal collective agreement allowing flexible solutions. On this basis, within the next four years, 25 million Euro can be invested at the site of Zweibrücken, and at least 32 further skilled employees shall be trained. Terex will thus remain one of the biggest and most important employers and apprenticing company in the region.

For the result of the negociations, a term is ending on september 15th. Until then, the negociations on the reconciliation of interests and the social compensation plan should be terminated on a major part of the planned measures.

Analysis: The industrial site of Germany remains under significant cost pressure frome contries with cheaper wages in eastern Europe and overseas. Mostly, outsourcing measures and staff cuts are the consequence – which, however, often lead to quality issues and unwelcome dependencies. The present model provides a reasonable alternative: Outsourcing remains an economic reality, but at the same time, dependencies can be reduced, a drain of know how can be avoided, and the money of a social-compensation plan can be used for necessary investments.