MUNICH — Siemens’ chief executive officer says Europe’s largest engineering company will eliminate at least 
11,600 positions as it cuts about 1 billion euros ($1.34 billion) in costs.
According to article by Alex Webb of Bloomberg News, The positions include 7,600 that will go as the company streamlines and creates a new divisional structure, plus 4,000 people working in surplus positions for regional clusters of countries, CEO Joe Kaeser told analysts and investors in a webcast conference from New York Thursday.
Kaeser’s plan to cut jobs at Munich-based Siemens may anger German unions after he promised the French government this month that he would guarantee jobs there for three years if the company buys the energy assets of Alstom. U.S. rival General Electric Co. offered $17 billion for the maker of France’s power grid and promised the government it will create 1,000 jobs in the country.
Siemens, which plans to make a counterbid by June 16, has proposed swapping its trainmaking business for Alstom’s energy assets to create two leading European companies in rail and energy. German union representatives at Siemens this month said such a deal would only be acceptable if the two companies guarantee no job cuts at the units.
The cuts are not likely to have any effect on the renewable energy sector of Siemens on a local level.