The works council of the crisis-stricken Volkswagen Group wants to counter the board’s austerity plans with its own concept that does not involve plant closures or mass layoffs. As the works council chairwoman Daniela Cavallo announced at a press conference in Wolfsburg on Wednesday, “smart product distribution” could protect the core workforce. The workforce is ready to make a contribution, but so far there are only plans from the board that “massively exceed our red lines,” she said in the IG Metall union hall with a view to the main plant on the Mittelland Canal. IG Metall is currently negotiating with the company Management is an efficiency program in which personnel costs play an important role. VW wants to reduce wages by ten percent, but employee representatives continue to oppose it and threaten a strike. “If the board insists on maximum positions and plant closures, then there will be a labor dispute over locations that this republic has never experienced before,” said Thorsten Gröger, head of IG Metall in Hanover. The next round of negotiations on a company tariff is planned for Thursday. The core is a “future fund”. Specifically, IG Metall is proposing a package of measures that should reduce labor costs by around 1.5 billion euros and at the same time provide for future investments in new products. The core is an instrument known as a “future fund” into which wage increases should flow instead of being paid out directly to employees. The funds could then be used to compensate for future capacity utilization problems in the factories. Parts of the bonuses – from the board of directors to management to the collective bargaining employees – would also be used to “secure the future”. If this were implemented, VW could address the overcapacity in its factories by affected factories “collectively” reducing working hours without the need for redundancies. It is a “demonstration of poverty” that the “best-paid board members in the republic” have not yet shown a path that does not involve cuts, which puts entire regions in turmoil and worry, said IG Metall boss Gröger. “Detailed exchange” on Thursday Volkswagen ruled cautious about the suggestions. “First of all, we welcome the fact that co-determination signals openness to measures regarding labor costs and capacity adjustments,” said Human Resources Director Gunnar Kilian, according to a statement. “Every suggestion that makes a contribution to achieving the goal helps.” However, the specific suggestions must first be evaluated financially. At the collective bargaining meeting on Thursday, they want to “enter into a more detailed exchange.” All in all, Volkswagen AG’s efficiency program amounts to a volume of 17 billion euros, Cavallo calculated in Wolfsburg. Personnel costs are only a comparatively small part of this; VW has to achieve much more through the “product substance”, i.e. more attractive models. The VW works council had already outlined the core elements for a “Master Plan 2025 – 2030 – 2035” at a works meeting at the beginning of September. More on the topic In detail, VW should continue to focus on the production of both combustion engines and electric vehicles in Germany in order to continue the transformation said Cavallo. However, she does not want this to be seen as a move away from the EU’s exit from combustion engines in 2035, which the works council still believes makes sense. A new additional focus should also be on the circular economy, such as the recycling of batteries. IG Metall also wants to promote new manufacturing processes “to keep industrial work in Germany sustainable.” Specifically, it is about topics such as large-scale casting, i.e. the production of entire car bodies from one piece instead of assembling them from many parts, as was previously the case. Cavallo is also calling for new management of the group, which apparently relies on making decisions more in Wolfsburg instead of decentralized the brands. The company’s board of directors needs to achieve “greater impact” in order to become faster. She had previously specifically referred to software development, which had also become a problem due to conflicting brand interests.
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