The federal government has called on the VW Group to keep jobs. We still have to wait and see what happens Volkswagen himself declared this, said a government spokesman in Berlin with a view to information from the works council, according to which VW wants to close plants and cut tens of thousands of jobs. The attitude of the Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (66, SPD) it is clear – “namely that possible wrong management decisions from the past must not be to the detriment of the employees”. It’s about maintaining and securing jobs.
Group works council head Daniela Cavallo (49) informed the workforce on Monday afternoon that the board of directors would… Germany want to close at least three VW plants. In addition, massive staff reductions and wage cuts are planned. The company recently informed employees about these plans.
IG Metall: “A deep stab in the heart of the workforce”
The IG Metall don’t want to accept that. “These rabid plans by the board are in no way acceptable and a break with everything we have experienced in the company in recent decades,” said IG Metall district manager Thorsten Gröger. “This is a deep stab in the heart of the hard-working VW workforce!” said Gröger. “We expect that instead of clear-cutting fantasies, Volkswagen and its board of directors will outline viable future concepts at the negotiating table, where employers have so far presented little more than empty phrases.”
On Wednesday, VW and the union will meet in Wolfsburg for their second round of collective bargaining. According to Cavallo, VW is calling for a flat rate cut of 10 percent and zero rounds in the next two years. VW employs around 120,000 people in Germany, around half of them in Wolfsburg. The VW brand operates a total of ten plants in Germany, six of which are in Lower Saxony, three in Saxony and one in Hesse. In September, VW canceled the job security that had been in place for more than 30 years. Redundancies for operational reasons would be possible from mid-2025.
Lower Saxony’s Economics Minister Olaf Lies (57, SPD) warned VW management: “With each location, capacity and, above all, know-how were lost – and irretrievably,” said the SPD politician in a statement. “Our expectations remain: maintaining all locations and avoiding redundancies for operational reasons.”
The state holds 20 percent of the voting rights in VW, Stephan Weil (65, SPD) and Education Minister Julia Willie Hamburg (38, Greens) sit on VW’s supervisory board. Six VW locations are in Lower Saxony, including the main plant in Wolfsburg with more than 60,000 employees.
“Corporate management must take responsibility for its employees”
“Right now the social partnership at VW must be effective,” said SPD parliamentary group deputy Verena Hubertz (36), who also warned VW of job cuts. “I expect the company management to live up to its responsibility for the employees in this exceptional situation.”
Lower Saxony’s opposition leader Sebastian Lechner (43) called on the state government to prevent VW from closing plants in Lower Saxony. “The situation of the VW Group is shocking,” said the CDU politician, according to the statement. “Prime Minister Weil and the state government are now more than ever required to do everything they can to prevent plant closures in Lower Saxony and to save as many jobs as possible at Volkswagen in Lower Saxony.”
Works council threatens to block VW factories
Volkswagen employees are declaring war on the management in Wolfsburg. All that the board has come up with so far to solve the problems are plant closures, mass layoffs and collective bargaining cuts, criticized the head of the general works council of Volkswagen Saxony, Uwe Kunstmann. If that doesn’t change, employees would march to the factory gates nationwide by December 1st at the latest and paralyze the company. The company is facing a “hot winter”. In Zwickau, the works council estimated participation at more than 6,000 employees. They marched to the factory gate with whistles, rattles and red alarm clocks and made their displeasure known.
Enlarge image
Protests in Zwickau: More than 6,000 employees marched to the factory gate with whistles, rattles and red alarm clocks and made their displeasure known.
Photo: Jens Schlueter / AFP
The savings plans of the Volkswagen board have also sparked violent protests at the Kassel-Baunatal plant. In front of around 8,000 employees, works council chairman Carsten Büchling and his deputy Christian Wetekam announced determined resistance. The Kassel works council chairmen warned against dismissing the plans as “saber rattling in the collective bargaining round”: “This is the plan of the largest German industrial group to start a sell-off in its home country of Germany.”
More on the topic
Büchling and Wetekam demand a robust plan for the future. There is a lack of strategies and concepts: “If there is still no plan of attack on the table, no concept for the future product range and no idea of how we can regain technological leadership!”