On Monday, management at Aldi DX (the digital and IT arm of the ALDI SÜD Group) announced that more than one in three jobs were being rationalised away at Mülheim an der Ruhr, exceeding the worst fears of the workforce. After 400 employees lost their jobs last year, a further 1,150 posts are now to be cut. Of what was once a workforce of 4,300, only 2,750 will remain by the end of 2027.
In recent weeks, the workers, who develop software for 7,500 Aldi Süd branches on four continents, have shown their willingness to confront management. On March 31, over 2,000 of them voted to establish an electoral board to prepare for the first-ever election of a works council.
In our last article, we supported the workers’ combativeness while simultaneously warning them not to rely on the election of a works council, but to simultaneously found a rank-and-file action committee to participate in the works council election and take up the struggle to defend jobs.
The future works council will certainly include representatives of candidate slates that want to regulate and, in fact, impose the drastic job cuts in accordance with the Works Constitution Act – via so-called “social plans” and 'job placement exchanges,' as Mülheim's Mayor Marc Buchholz CDU (Christian Democratic Union) has already proposed. This would mean giving up the fight to defend jobs before it had even begun.
What would be the consequence? Many of the mostly younger workers have only just started families or acquired a home; in other words, they have linked their future to their job at Aldi DX. And this was done in good faith, as the IT subsidiary had expanded only a few years ago, recruiting highly sought-after IT experts and specialists from all over the world and offering relatively good working conditions.
Now that has come to an end. This is a blow for all those affected; for international co-workers, it is a double blow. Their residence permit in Germany is usually linked to their job, often involving an “EU Blue Card.” If they do not find another well-paid job within three to six months, their residence permit expires.
Unlike two years ago, however, it is now significantly more difficult to find an equivalent position in the IT industry immediately. Straightforward tasks have been taken over through the introduction of AI and digitalisation, displacing employees; the tech sector itself is increasingly becoming a victim of the use of AI.
From the beginning of the year to the end of April 2026, around 100,000 IT job cuts have already been reported worldwide, with the majority occurring in the US. Oracle is cutting up to 30,000 jobs, Amazon around 16,000, Meta 8,000, Microsoft up to 9,000, Snap and Disney around 1,000 each. But Aldi DX is not an isolated case in Germany either. For example, insurance company Ergo, a subsidiary of Munich RE, has announced the slashing of 1,000 jobs due to AI.
AI is now taking over large parts of software development and programming – without needing breaks, rest periods or holidays. AI generates vast amounts of code, which then only needs to be checked and post-processed by a few experts. For them, the work pressure increases noticeably, while the rest are sent into the wilderness.
This seems to be the plan of Aldi Süd. Many tasks are to be outsourced, for example to Hungary and India. As reported to us, outsourcing to Bulgaria is also already in full swing.
This is intended to reduce costs. The news that as part of a general “slimming down of management structures,” about 40 per cent of directors and 30 per cent of managers are also to leave Aldi DX, serves primarily tactical goals. It is intended to suggest that “everyone” must contribute to cost reductions.
In reality, the bulk of the workforce will pay with their jobs to increase the profits of the globally active discounter. Regional newspaper Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ) quotes “a senior employee who wants to remain anonymous” explaining that “Aldi Süd does not want to reduce costs out of an acute economic emergency, but with the goal of further margin and profit optimisation.”
One employee put it in a nutshell to the WSWS: “American conditions are moving in here as well.”
On Monday, the mood of the workforce was at a low point immediately after receiving the bad news. Many with whom we spoke were shocked and dismayed.
Aldi DX has assured them it would avoid compulsory redundancies, also to save costs. Employees who are to leave will be offered individual redundancy packages. Those who do not live in the Ruhr area, due to the 100 percent work-from-home regulation that was valid until last autumn, will also be under pressure. For months, they have had to come from Munich, Berlin, Hamburg and other cities nationwide to the office in Mülheim for two days a week.
Obviously, the corporation wants to establish a fait accompli before the new works council is constituted. But even if the works council were to begin its work beforehand: “Its first task would have to be the negotiation of a social plan and a reconciliation of interests for the employees,” writes the WAZ.
Previously, a corporate spokesperson had stated that they would “of course work closely and trustfully” with the works council. “We are convinced that lasting entrepreneurial success can be achieved through an appreciative treatment of employees,” the company said.
It is obvious that the initiative to elect a works council is an expression of the combativeness of the workforce. However, works councils are legally obliged to contribute actively to maintaining “industrial peace” and to uphold trustful cooperation with the employer. If they do not do so, they face warnings or dismissal. Even if there are militant colleagues in the works council, their hands and feet are therefore tied.
We therefore propose the building of a rank-and-file action committee that stands in the revolutionary tradition of workers' councils, mobilises all employees of Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd, including subsidiaries, and creates the framework for a common struggle.
The attacks on IT employees at Aldi are the result of a global crisis of the capitalist system, in which AI is systematically being used to destroy jobs, intensify exploitation and increase profits.
At the top of society, the power and wealth of a super-rich financial aristocracy are growing, while the ruling class everywhere is acting aggressively against the working class. Consequently, workplace disputes must be closely linked to the struggle against the capitalist profit system.
The Trump administration and the German government under Friedrich Merz are reacting to the crisis of capitalism with an aggressive policy of rearmament and war. Germany is rearming on a scale not seen since Hitler, financing the war against Russia in Ukraine and preparing for new wars.
This policy is being financed by destroying jobs and imposing social cuts. The defence of jobs and conditions at Aldi DX must be seen in this context. Just as the ruling class is once again taking up its reactionary traditions, the working class must link up with its revolutionary, socialist traditions and counterpose its interests to the profit maximisation of the capitalists and shareholders.
An action committee that organises the struggle against the dismissals and participates in the works council election with its own slate of candidates must – as we argued in the previous article – fight on the following principles:
1. The needs of the workers rank higher than the profit interests of corporate management and the shareholders, the Aldi Süd clan around Karl Albrecht and Beate Heister, whose wealth was estimated by Manager Magazin at €27.7 billion [US$32.3 billion] in 2025. In concrete terms this means:
Use AI to ease work, not to cut jobs and increase work pressure.
Disclosure of Aldi Süd’s profits: The corporation has a turnover of €20 billion in Germany alone, and €124 billion internationally. How much of these profits from the labour of hundreds of thousands ends up in the bank accounts of the Albrecht family
2. Against the division of workers by company, sector and nation. Specifically:
Make contact with other companies in the Aldi Süd group and also the Aldi Nord group. Worldwide, 155,000 work for Aldi Süd, including in the US, China and Australia, and almost 90,000 for Aldi Nord in eight European countries. Jobs are being cut everywhere.
Include 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.
The workforce of Aldi DX is international. Defend international colleagues who are here on a Blue Card special work visa.
To all who agree with this orientation: Get in touch with us to discuss and organise these tasks. Fill out the form, send a message via WhatsApp or Signal to +491633378340.