Volkswagen intends to close at least three of its factories in Germany and eliminate tens of thousands of jobs, as the president of the works council, Daniela Cavallo, told the automobile company’s employees during an event on Monday.
According to the union leader’s statements collected by DPA, the remaining Volkswagen factories in Germany will be reduced according to the management planwhile management is also said to be considering a general salary reduction.
Cavallo and other union leaders at the German auto group promised “fierce resistance to budget cuts”. “I can only warn all members of the board of directors and all those at the top of the company: do not joke with us, with the employees of Volkswagen,” the union leader declared on Monday.
The German union IG Metall, which represents the majority of workers at the manufacturer’s factories in Germany, has also pledged to oppose any factory closures or other significant reductions.
“It’s a stab in the hearts of Volkswagen workers” said Thorsten Gröger, regional director of the union in the western German state of Lower Saxony, where Volkswagen is headquartered.
Volkswagen defends its cost plans
For their part, Volkswagen managers came to defend themselves this Monday your cost reduction plansalthough they did not comment directly on reports that the company would cut tens of thousands of jobs.
Volkswagen brand CEO Thomas Schäfer said in a statement that costs at factories in Germany have become particularly high.
“We cannot continue as before” » says Schäfer. “We are not productive enough in our German factories and our factory costs are currently 25-50% higher than we had planned. This means that individual German factories are twice as expensive as those of the competition “, he assured.
The press release was published shortly after the statements of the head of the Volkswagen works council, Daniela Cavallo.
“Without comprehensive measures aimed at regaining competitiveness, we will not be able to afford make significant investments in the future“, Volkswagen Human Resources Director Gunnar Kilian said in a statement.
Kilian, however, did not respond directly to these claims and did not provide any details on the specific cost-cutting measures the automaker is considering. “The fact is that the situation is serious and the responsibility of the negotiating partners is enormous,” he added.
“We adhere to the principle agreed with the co-management that the discussion on the future of Volkswagen must first be conducted internally with our negotiating partners,” he explained.
Volkswagen announced “concrete proposals to reduce labor costs” ahead of planned collective negotiations with union leaders on Wednesday.
Strikes possible at the end of November
Cavallo, for his part, once again asked the automaker’s leaders on Monday to present a global vision of the group’s future instead of limiting themselves to promoting individual cost-cutting measures. “With us, there will be no slicing tactics.”neither partial solutions nor lazy compromises,” he said.
The group’s plant in Osnabrück, which recently lost a Porsche order it hoped to pursue, is particularly at risk of closing, according to the works council. Porsche is also a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group, which also owns Audi, Skoda, Seat/Cupra and brands other than the main Volkswagen brand.
Cavallo said automaker executives are also planning mass layoffs, with entire departments at risk of closing or relocating overseas.
“All German Volkswagen factories are affected by these plans. None of them are safe,” added the president of the works council, without giving further details.
Volkswagen employs approximately 120,000 people in Germany, around half of whom work at the brand’s headquarters and main factory in Wolfsburg, northern Germany.
The Volkswagen brand operates a total of 10 factories in Germany, including six in Lower Saxony, three in the state of Saxony (east) and one in the state of Hesse (west).
In September, the automaker terminated job security agreementl a long-standing relationship with unions in place for more than 30 years. Layoffs are now possible from mid-2025.
Volkswagen has never closed a factory in Germany and has not closed a factory worldwide for more than three decades. The September announcement was major news in Germany, where it was seen as a worrying sign for the country’s economy as a whole.
For its part, after the works council’s announcement, the German government urged Volkswagen to protect jobs. A government spokesperson said Chancellor Olaf Scholz believed that “possibly wrong decisions taken in the past by management should not be to the detriment of workers.”
