{"id":5844,"date":"2026-04-20T02:00:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T02:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/5844\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T02:00:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T02:00:24","slug":"aldi-dx-tech-workers-in-germany-fight-job-cuts-form-a-rank-and-file-committee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/5844\/","title":{"rendered":"Aldi DX tech workers in Germany fight job cuts: Form a rank-and-file committee!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aldi sign at sunset [Photo by Mike Mozart of JeepersMedia<\/a> \/ CC BY 2.0<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Over 2,000 employees of the IT company Aldi DX gathered in Essen, Germany on March 31 and elected an electoral board to prepare and carry out the election of a works council. Many workers of the discounter\u2019s IT subsidiary are determined to fight against job cuts and the deterioration of working conditions.<\/p>\n

The Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party, SGP) and\u00a0World Socialist Web Site\u00a0support this willingness to fight. We advocate expanding this growing resistance and making it the starting point for a broad mobilisation of all employees at all locations.<\/p>\n

The attacks on Aldi\u2019s IT workers are part of the global crisis of the capitalist system. Everywhere, new forms of production, above all utilising AI, are being deployed to massively cut jobs and increase conditions of exploitation immeasurably. At the same time, the unrestrained enrichment of those at the other end of society is taking place. A super-rich financial aristocracy is destroying society. With the same aggressiveness with which President Trump and the oligarchs behind him are threatening the destruction of civilisation in Iran, the ruling class in every country is taking action against the working class.<\/p>\n

In order to successfully fight against job cuts and deteriorating working conditions, it is necessary to connect the workplace dispute with a systematic mobilisation against the capitalist profit system.<\/p>\n

Only on the basis of a socialist perspective, which rests on the old principle of the labour movement that the interests and needs of workers rank higher than the profit maximisation of the capitalists, and which strives for democratic control over production, can workers\u2019 rights be enforced.<\/p>\n

Therefore, the founding of a rank-and-file committee is necessary, which stands in the tradition of workers\u2019 councils, mobilises all Aldi DX employees and creates the organisational framework for a joint struggle. This is the way to connect the dispute that has begun at Aldi with the many workers in other sectors who are confronted with the same or very similar problems.<\/p>\n

We propose forming a \u201cRank-and-File Committee slate\u201d and participating in the works council election in order to expand the narrow framework of works council work and organise a principled struggle to defend all jobs, wages and social standards.<\/p>\n

With its own list, the rank-and-file committee opposes those who strive for partnership and collaboration with management, subordinate themselves to shareholder interests, and accept and enforce dismissals and social cuts via a \u201csocial plan\u201d or reconciliation of interests.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Whoever advocates \u201csocial partnership\u201d nowadays is either a fool who is not interested in reality, or an agent of the trade union bureaucracy, which, wherever it has influence, uses its entire apparatus to enforce the decisions of management and to thwart and suppress every serious struggle by the workers.<\/p>\n

We are currently experiencing an unparalleled jobs massacre in the car and supplier industries, but not only there. It can be seen in all branches of industry\u2014apart from the arms corporations. In the name of \u201csocial partnership,\u201d the IG Metall union apparatus works everywhere as corporate consultants, proposes austerity measures and dismissals itself, helps to elaborate so-called \u201cefficiency programmes\u201d with massive deteriorations in working conditions, and enforces these social attacks against growing resistance in the factories. At VW, for example, the IG Metall officials have agreed to the destruction of 35,000 jobs and wage cuts of 20 percent\u2014and celebrate this as a success!<\/p>\n

The turning of social partnership into social attacks and the transformation of the trade unions into corporate consultants are closely linked to the globalisation of production. The times when labour relations were regulated nationally and trade unions could temporarily negotiate social improvements are long gone. Now, global production and an international labour market dominate, and the trade unions demand concessions from the workers in order to increase the competitiveness of the corporations.<\/p>\n

At Aldi, the impact of globalisation is very evident. The attacks not only affect the approximately 3,900 people at Aldi subsidiary DX based in M\u00fclheim an der Ruhr, who develop the software for 7,500 Aldi S\u00fcd stores on four continents. In 2024, Aldi DX still had 4,300 employees. Now, within about a year, 400 jobs have been cut, secretly, without announcement, without explanation, without answers to questions by the workforce.<\/p>\n

This is just the beginning. The latest restrictions on working from home, according to which all employees must come to the office in M\u00fclheim an der Ruhr two days a week, is initiating a new wave of dismissals. Corporate management has successively expanded its cooperation with the Indian IT service provider Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to develop AI-supported processes. Sooner or later, the entire IT work or a large part of it can be outsourced to India.<\/p>\n

This also affects other areas at Aldi. Five hundred jobs are to be eliminated in the head office. Cashiers in Aldi stores are being done away with by employing self-scanning checkouts. Those remaining not only have to work their own till, but also watch over the self-scanning checkouts, an enormous intensification of work pressure.<\/p>\n

The IT specialists at Aldi DX know very well what great technical innovations are associated with AI. Labour productivity can be increased enormously; exhausting, monotonous and unhealthy work overcome, the economic situation and cultural life of the population raised. But the elimination of heavy and senseless work does not have to lead to mass unemployment and misery; it should lead to more free time and an expansion of the possibilities for education, family life and cultural enrichment.<\/p>\n

But in the hands of the ruling capitalist class, every technological innovation becomes a weapon against the working class and against the countries it wants to conquer and subjugate with military force.<\/p>\n

The defence of jobs and social standards at Aldi DX must be understood and tackled in direct connection with the historical crisis of the capitalist system. The aggressive pro-war policy of the US administration under Trump is not a temporary development. The struggle for world power, control of raw materials and markets has fully ignited and now determines politics in all imperialist countries.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The German government is driving forward an insane rearmament programme in order to become the leading military power in Europe. It is using the Ukraine war to prepare an Operation Barbarossa 2.0 (Hitler\u2019s original invasion of Eastern Europe was named\u00a0Operation Barbarossa). In order to finance this war policy, social benefits are being massively cut. \u201cWe can no longer afford the welfare state!\u201d Chancellor Friedrich Merz declares.<\/p>\n

In truth, however, the population can no longer afford capitalism and its profit system. For the working class, the much-vaunted \u201cnew era\u201d in foreign and military policy means a return to the class struggle! Just as the ruling class is reanimating its reactionary traditions of mass dismissals, social cuts, war and dictatorship, the working class must turn again to its revolutionary, socialist traditions.<\/p>\n

There is no lack of willingness to fight. In conversations with the WSWS, many Aldi DX employees show themselves to be self-confident, determined and combative. One of them said that if the new work-from-home regulation was indeed preparation for further job cuts, \u201cone must also think about strikes.\u201d Another said that there was much uncertainty in the company, but \u201cThe mood is combative. I just listened to the Internationale on the underground on the way here,\u201d he reported smiling.<\/p>\n

This mood must now be given organisational expression. A rank-and-file committee, which should participate in the works council election with an independent slate of candidates, must fight for the following principles:<\/p>\n

The needs of the workers rank higher than the profit interests of corporate management and the shareholders, the Aldi S\u00fcd clan around Karl Albrecht and Beate Heister, whose wealth was estimated by\u00a0Manager Magazin\u00a0at \u20ac27.7 billion in 2025. In concrete terms this means:Use AI to ease work, not for job cuts and to increase work pressure.\u00a0Disclosure of Aldi S\u00fcd\u2019s profits: The corporation has a turnover of \u20ac20 billion in Germany alone, and \u20ac124 billion internationally. How much of these profits from the labour of hundreds of thousands ends up in the bank accounts of the Albrecht family?<\/p>\n

2. \u00a0Against the division of workers by company, sector and nation. Specifically:<\/p>\n

Make contact with other companies in the Aldi S\u00fcd group and also the Aldi Nord group. Worldwide, 155,000 work for Aldi S\u00fcd, including in the US, China and Australia, and almost 90,000 for Aldi Nord in eight European countries. Jobs are being cut everywhere.\u00a0Include colleagues from service providers like the Indian TCS. They are allies in the struggle against the Aldi corporation. Additionally, make contact with other IT companies. Make your struggle the starting point for IT workers all over the world against the impact of AI on jobs and conditions.\u00a0The workforce of Aldi DX is international. Defend international colleagues who are here on a Blue Card special work visa.<\/p>\n

To all who agree with this orientation: Contact us to discuss and organise these tasks. Fill out the form, send a message via WhatsApp or Signal to +491633378340.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to the IWA-RFC Newsletter<\/p>\n

Get email updates on workers\u2019 struggles and a global perspective from the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aldi sign at sunset [Photo by Mike Mozart of JeepersMedia \/ CC BY 2.0] Over 2,000 employees of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5769,5770,5,5768,5767,4014],"class_list":{"0":"post-5844","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-class-struggle","9":"tag-downsizing","10":"tag-germany","11":"tag-it","12":"tag-job-cuts","13":"tag-trade-unions"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}