Wednesday is the moment of truth for 2 000 employees of Dutch contract builder VDL Nedcar in Born, as the company has summoned everybody to show up and get to know the final end day of their work. Only 474 will escape the hatchet. The employees are informed department by department and can get answers to their questions and moral support in a so-called ‘job center’.

Today, production at the Netherlands’ only car plant is completely at a standstill. Only administrative personnel will go on working. Once the ‘fired’ employees get their papers with their final end day, they can take off the rest of the day. On Thursday, production will resume.

Builder cars again in 2026?

The news of the massive job cut is not new. VDL already informed its employees in November 2023 that 2 000 more will lose their jobs at Nedcar in Born (the Netherlands), leaving 474 of 2 500 today as ‘intellectual capital’ to preserve the car factory for future clients.

Although Nedcar announced earlier that it signed a declaration of intent to build cars again in Born from 2026, no names of potential candidates are given. That new contract would provide jobs for 3 000 people at maximum.

The 2 000 people losing their jobs, among which many Belgian cross-border workers, come on top of the thousand interim workers and 500 permanent staff that have already left. The production workers will leave in March 2024 at the latest, when the contract with BMW to build the Mini and the X1 ends. There will be no extra jobs for them in VDL’s new Mobility Innovation Center.

Battery assembly for BMW

VDL Nedcar struck a deal with… BMW to assemble in that Center 125 000 battery packs between 2024 and 2035. VDL CEO Willem van der Leegte saw this as ‘a flying start’ for its new branch where ‘sustainable mobility solutions’ are developed. Here, research is done into autonomous vehicles for German Schaeffler, among others.

VDL says it will keep more jobs after March 1st, 2024, than is strictly necessary to maintain the car factory itself for future clients. It wants to ensure enough technical profiles remain to make a jump-start when needed. However, the unions are skeptical that a ‘new client’ would be in sight.

Meanwhile, there is a social plan for the employees who lose their jobs and help in finding a replacement job. If all production targets are met for BMW by the end of the contract, every employee will get a €7 500 bonus before leaving.