In a calculated manoeuvre emblematic of late-stage capitalism’s relentless assault on labour, Mercedes-Benz has secured an agreement to offer buyouts and slash planned salary increases, all in the name of “efficiency.” While the company assures that production workers will be spared and redundancies “ruled out,” the writing is on the wall.

Through outsourcing and a quiet policy of attrition, the automaker is methodically dismantling its workforce—hollowing out finance, human resources, and procurement through retirements and so-called voluntary redundancies.

This is not an isolated event. Europe’s auto industry is in crisis, besieged by corporate profit-seeking and an economic system that demands perpetual expansion while cannibalizing its own foundations. Powerful German unions now find themselves in an existential battle, resisting corporate demands to ship jobs overseas, shutter factories, and grind down wages.

Mercedes-Benz’s vision for the future is clear: a leaner, more “competitive” company where the balance sheet triumphs over the dignity of work. Their goal? A 10% cut in production costs by 2027, doubling by 2030—an acceleration of a 2020 plan to gut expenses by 20% between 2019 and 2025. The working class will bear the cost, as management cloaks austerity in the language of “efficiency” and “streamlining.”

This is how automotive empires fall—not in a spectacular collapse, but in a slow, methodical strangulation of those who built them.