Enough is Enough: workers are not the cost Europe needs to cut

As hundreds of thousands of auto workers take action across Germany today in the first major action day of the Enough is Enough campaign, industriAll Europe publishes a new campaign briefing shattering a familiar myth: that Europe’s industrial crisis is the fault of workers who cost too much and work too little.

Europe’s industries face real pressures – the China 2.0 shock, US protectionism and rising energy prices – made worse by chronic private underinvestment and the lack of a coherent EU industrial policy. Yet instead of tackling these root causes, many employers are forcing workers to pay the price through restructuring, longer working hours and pay cuts.

Workers are more productive, not more expensive

Our research shows that, in Europe’s manufacturing sector, growth in value added per worker has outpaced average pay by 16 percentage points since 2000. At the same time, labour costs as a share of revenue have fallen across several sub-sectors, including automotive, where pressure to cut labour costs is strongest. Since the turn of the century, labour’s share of income across the entire non-financial sector has fallen by more than 3 percentage points, while gross profits have grown almost twice as fast as average pay.

Longer hours will punish workers without increasing demand

The push to lengthen the working week is strongest in Germany, where Chancellor Merz has argued that a four-day week cannot sustain the country’s prosperity. For German industrial workers, the 35-hour week is a hard-won right. In other Member States, such as Greece, where workers already work the longest hours in the EU, there is no evidence that longer working hours have made industry more competitive. And with auto plants, steelworks and chemical sites across Europe running well below capacity, not a single extra product will be sold simply because people work longer.

Who is really squeezing Europe’s industry?

Our research bluntly shows what is really happening: private equity firms, global asset managers and foreign investors are prioritising payouts over investment, extracting value from European industry rather than building its future. The numbers are stark. Across the EU-27 non-financial sector, the ratio of investment to profit has fallen by 12.5% since 2000. Over the same period, average shareholder payouts at Europe’s largest multinational companies have tripled. In the automotive sector alone, seven major European manufacturers made €469 billion in net profits between 2012 and 2025 and spent €189 billion on dividends and share buybacks. This is not a shortage of money. It is a choice about where that money goes.

Europe’s industrial future is being decided now

Today’s mobilisation sends a message that goes far beyond Germany: Europe’s industrial crisis demands a European response. Led by IG Metall, automotive workers are taking action at more than 200 sites across Germany, joined in solidarity by trade unions across Europe. Their demand is clear: Europe must act now with an ambitious industrial policy that protects jobs, strengthens our industrial base and stops the bleeding of Europe’s industries.

Austrian unions PRO-GE and GPA are holding a joint action in Vienna, while Czech union OS KOVO and Italian unions FIOM-CGIL and FIM CISL are sending delegations to Germany. IndustriAll Europe General Secretary Judith Kirton-Darling will address a rally at the Opel factory in Rüsselsheim.

The campaign continues with actions across Europe this autumn, building towards a mobilisation at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 24 November. Read the full briefing here and find campaign materials on the Enough is Enough campaign page.