Bosch to cut half its workforce in Nuremberg
Amid a wave of mass redundancies, Bosch has announced further jobs cuts: around 900 out of 1800 employees at its Nuremburg site are now set to leave by 2029. IG Metall and the works council have firmly denounced this decision, calling it a "massive layoff."
IG Metall automotive action day at the Bosch plant in Nuremberg
Image: IG Metall Nürnberg
This reduction of 900 jobs at the plant comes in addition to the already announced cut of 22,000 jobs. The majority of the job cuts affect the Mobility sector, i.e., the business as an automotive supplier.
The IG Metall trade union and the works council have sharply criticised the job-cutting plans in Nuremberg. “If the employer implements these drastic cutback plans, the Nuremberg Robert Bosch plant will face a slow death. A closure of the plant by Robert Bosch GmbH after 2029 can no longer be ruled out,” states a press release from IG Metall.
Works Council: Bosch plans a “drastic cutback”
“The announcement of the planned drastic cutback was a shock for all employees. For us, it is clear: there must be better ways for the plant than this drastic cutback. We will now develop our proposals for the future and present them to the employer. We are fighting for the plant and every single job,” says Arne Brandsch, chairman of the site’s Works Council.
Strong words also come from Andreas Weidemann, First Authorised Representative of IG Metall Nuremberg: “The lack of ideas and ignorance of Bosch managers reminds me of the closure of AEG. Back then, unscrupulous managers, driven by greed for profit, closed down a profitable location and robbed hundreds of people of their professional livelihoods. As IG Metall, we will not stand idly by while Bosch management implements this plan. Anyone who takes away a plant’s future and at the same time expects the few remaining employees to bear the brunt of the drastic cutback with significant wage concessions will face our massive resistance.”
What Weidemann means: Despite financial cuts already made in the past – since 2007, there have been several agreements at the site to secure its future, in which the workforce has contributed financially through wages and working hours – Bosch is reportedly demanding an additional 15 per cent reduction in personnel costs from the workforce, according to IG Metall.
Site dependent on petrol injection pumps
Bosch itself has not yet commented on the plans. However, it is known that the site security agreement expires on 31 December 2026. The Nuremberg plant has so far been almost entirely dependent on the internal combustion engine business. The main product at the site, the high-pressure pump for petrol injection, “faces a ruinous price war with other EU/non-EU plants of Robert Bosch,” according to IG Metall. At these locations, significantly lower social standards usually apply, and collective bargaining agreements are generally not in place, the union states.
IG Metall and the works council had already foreseen this challenge due to the ramp-up of electromobility and had demanded new “future products” for the Nuremberg plant. However, according to the union, Bosch management has so far not engaged with this. A possible job cut in Nuremberg has been on the table for months; the workforce had already protested against this on 21 September during the nationwide Automobil-Aktionstag der IG Metall (DE).
At the end of the first half of 2026, the Bosch Group employed 406,225 people, which is 6,549 fewer than on 31.12.2025, according to the half-year figures (DE). The decline in personnel affected all business sectors, but Mobility was disproportionately affected: In Germany, 118,932 people were employed by Bosch at mid-year (31.12.2025: 122,968) – a decrease of 4,036 employees.