Wolfsburg (Germany) – Europe’s largest automaker Volkswagen plans to close at least three plants in Germany and cut tens of thousands of jobs. It wants to reduce costs and increase competitiveness. According to DPA, the head of Volkswagen’s works council, Daniela Cavallová, stated this at an event where she informed employees about management’s plans. The German government has called for jobs to be saved, while Volkswagen insists restructuring is necessary for competitiveness.
VW has been negotiating with unions for several weeks about possible closures and layoffs. According to the union, concrete plans are now on the table.
According to the unions, the plant in Osnabrück, which recently lost a promising order from the Porsche car manufacturer, is particularly at risk. In addition, management is planning layoffs and, according to the unions, tens of thousands of jobs are at risk. Entire departments are to be closed or moved abroad.
“These plans concern all VW plants in Germany. None of them are safe,” Cavall said, without elaborating. The VW brand alone employs approximately 120,000 people in Germany, about half of whom work in Wolfsburg. In total, the car company has ten production plants in Germany and, including other brands, almost 300,000 employees.
The German government called on the concern to preserve jobs. A cabinet spokesman said that the government is in close contact with the carmaker and employee representatives. According to him, the position of Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz is clear, namely that any erroneous management decisions from the past must not be at the expense of employees. The goal is to preserve and secure jobs, a spokesperson told DPA.
Volkswagen reiterated that extensive restructuring measures are needed to make the company competitive in the long term. “It is the only way to finance further investments from our own resources in the future,” the company said in a statement. She did not comment on the planned restructuring measures.
In September, VW formally terminated a job protection agreement that had prevented layoffs at its German plants. The agreement has been valid since 1994. Layoffs could start from mid-2025. In early September, the company also said that it does not rule out plant closures and layoffs.
The management of the company and the IG Metall trade union will meet on Wednesday for the second round of negotiations on the in-house wage agreement. Already in the first round, which took place in September, VW rejected IG Metall’s demands for a seven percent wage increase and instead insisted on savings. VW has yet to provide any further details. According to Cavall, VW is now demanding a ten percent wage cut and zero raises for the next two years.
“Volkswagen is crushing high energy prices, burdensome Brussels regulations, the green agenda or the undetected advent of electromobility,” said Trinity Bank chief economist Lukáš Kovanda. “The automaker is also paying for the mistakes of the management, which, after the Dieselgate scandal nine years ago, tried so zealously and uncritically to follow the often rather ideologically set goals of Brussels that it found itself in one of the most difficult moments in its almost 90-year history, during which it has never closed any of its a German factory, which is therefore an act he is now considering.”
For years, the main VW brand has been struggling with high costs and in terms of revenues it lags significantly behind group companies such as Škoda, Seat and Audi.
Germany trade union automoto Volkswagen company FLEŠ
Source: www.ceskenoviny.cz
