Daimler workers to preserve jobs at Mercedes plant

Daimler AG workers reached an agreement with managers to preserve jobs at the company's Sindelfingen plant until 2020, ending a standoff after the carmaker said it will shift Mercedes-Benz production to the U.S.

The 37,000 workers employed at the plant in the southwestern German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg will face no job cuts over the next 10 years, Silke Ernst, a spokeswoman for the works council, said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. The council will have a meeting and press conference today.

Daimler, the world's second-largest maker of luxury cars, announced Dec. 2 that it would move some production of the best- selling C-Class sedan to Alabama, ending the model's assembly in Sindelfingen after more than 25 years. Unions demanded a guarantee that no employees would be fired.

Daimler said it would offer alternative positions to 1,800 workers affected by the move, which is due to take place in 2014 in an effort to cut costs and reduce the impact of changes in the dollar-euro exchange rate.

Thousands of employees demonstrated in Sindelfingen last week as well as at Daimler's corporate headquarters in nearby Stuttgart. Daimler plans to hire more than 1,000 workers for C- Class production in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. It will continue to assemble the model in Bremen, Germany; East London, South Africa; and Beijing, China.