Carsten Büchling is combative. “There will be no mass layoffs with us and no factory closures,” says the works council chairman of the VW plant in Baunatal. He also sharply criticizes the demands of the company’s board of directors for a pay cut of ten percent: “We will not allow any intervention in the wallets of VW employees.” These words were spoken on Monday at an IG Metall rally in Kassel. A day later, union representatives from the pilot districts of the coast and Bavaria agreed with employers on wage increases for the majority of employees in the metal and electrical industries. However, a separate collective agreement applies to the 120,000 employees of the Volkswagen brand. So far it has provided for higher wages than the collective agreement, but Volkswagen employees are now threatened with cuts. Carsten Büchling, head of the VW works council in Baunatal, at an IG Metall rally in Kassel. Maximilian von LachnerIn Baunatal there are not many employees who want to talk to the press about it. Dozens waved away as they were greeted by the F.A.Z. at the shift change on Friday last week. be addressed. The few who spoke out did not want to give their names. An employee reported rumors that three employees had been dismissed without notice because of public criticism of the board. When asked, there is no truth to these rumors, says works council leader Büchling when asked – but many VW employees obviously have reservations about speaking to journalists. Uncertain future for temporary workers. Among the few who speak out is a young temporary worker. He only started at Volkswagen in May and quit his previous job, he says: “You just earn better here than in the trades.” Before he moved, he asked acquaintances who were already working at VW at the time, “they said me: ‘There’s enough work’.” There are currently almost 1,500 temporary workers in Baunatal, says works council chairman Büchling – in addition to the 15,000 permanent VW employees. It will probably become clear before the end of the year whether fewer temporary workers will be employed in the future. However, VW management wants to abandon the regulation of paying temporary workers the same as permanent employees after ten months. “The knife is used on the weakest,” criticizes Büchling. Too many “runners around.” Long-standing employees also share this criticism. “I really feel sorry for the young people,” says a plant operator who has been with the company since 1985. At the same time, there are too many “runners” in the factory who are not really productive. The union and the works council are jointly responsible for this. There is no doubt that savings need to be made, says the native Turk: “For me, they could employ five people in Turkey.” Wage costs have long been higher in Germany than elsewhere – but these are now also the case in other countries built good cars. In addition, fewer workers are needed to build electric car drives than to build combustion engines. From his point of view, politicians are partly to blame for the crisis, says the man, with a view to the sales stop for new cars with combustion engines planned for 2035. Problems in the production of electric drives Both transmissions for combustion cars and electric drives are produced in Baunatal manufactured, not only for Volkswagen, but also for other VW Group brands. However, in recent months there have been problems with the production of the electric drives with a system that was purchased specifically for this purpose. At the beginning of this year, according to media reports, the production of electric cars at the VW factory in Zwickau had to be throttled. Works council member Büchling says that enough parts can now be delivered. According to the plant manager in Baunatal, the production problems are due to a wrong decision by the factory management; he says that they saved money in the wrong place when purchasing the machine. “And who gets the heavy hammer in the end? The little employee.”Criticism of the management’s model policy. Another skilled worker who works in quality assurance criticizes that in some cases there are no machine fitters assigned to the weekends who could intervene in the event of problems. He also sees the model policy as bad planning – for example the discontinuation of the comparatively cheap E-Up electric vehicle last year. “VW is a good employer, we earn very good money,” says the man in his mid-fifties. “But it can’t be the case that they say: ‘We have to save’ – and start with the little man.” More on the topic According to his own statements, he earns significantly more than the 55,000 euros gross per year that was mentioned in a recently published extra -The edition of the works council newspaper “Mitdetermine!” is cited as an example of skilled worker salaries at VW. But he has been working in three shifts for 37 years and only has one weekend off a month, says the bachelor. He could understand that VW had terminated the job security and had to save money – but the managers had received high bonus payments in April, “4.5 billion euros were distributed to the shareholders in June, and in September we are to blame.” The IG too Metall demands renunciation from the board – and a future strategy for Volkswagen. Not only the employees of the VW factory in northern Hesse depend on this, but indirectly thousands of other jobs.
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