Thomas Kadowsky imagined that he would keep working at the German industrial coatings plant where he had served as team leader for over 30 years until he retired. So it came as a shock when he received a call in March informing him that the owner, the German group Allnex, was going to close the 90-year-old site, nestled in the middle of a red-brick housing estate in the northern port city of Hamburg. “I was completely stunned,” Kadowsky, 58, told AFP. Kadowsky and 130 other people will lose their jobs with the closure of the plant next year. The company has justified the move by the “recent changes in energy prices” — a surge that is crippling the German chemicals industry.—AFP
