The tough struggle for a collective agreement Volkswagen is becoming more and more of a test of patience. Even a 23-hour marathon meeting on Wednesday night failed to produce an agreement. The negotiations are being extended and continued on Wednesday, according to the company and the IG Metall communicated.
There is talk among participants of tough discussions that could once again drag on until late into the night. There is currently no end in sight. Even after more than two days, the positions are still far apart. It is completely unclear whether an agreement will be reached. A failure of the talks cannot be ruled out either.
Since Monday, representatives of Volkswagen and IG Metall in Hanover have been struggling to find a solution to the dispute over wage cuts, plant closures and layoffs. Both sides had previously expressed the desire to reach an agreement before Christmas. Around 70 company and union representatives have stayed in a hotel in Hanover for what is now the fifth round of collective bargaining.
Negotiations sometimes take place in large groups, sometimes in small working groups. Negotiations continued on Wednesday night until morning. The representatives only took a break in the morning and the discussions continued in the early afternoon. Negotiations had already taken place for 13 hours until after midnight on Monday. Participants report that the lack of sleep is now becoming noticeable for many people.
IG Metall wants to prevent plant closures
The main points of contention are the factory closures and operational layoffs brought into play by VW. IG Metall has described both as “red lines” that should not be crossed. The union also rejects the flat-rate wage cut of 10 percent demanded by VW. IG Metall does not want to accept permanent cuts in monthly wages.
VW also wants to take on fewer trainees and reduce the pay of temporary workers, who previously received a supplement at VW, to the normal level of temporary work. VW justified the required cuts with high costs and low utilization of its plants.
Instead, IG Metall demands that all ten locations be maintained Germany as well as an employment guarantee for the approximately 130,000 employees in Lower Saxony, Hesse and Saxony. The previous employment guarantee, which excluded redundancies for operational reasons for more than 30 years, VW canceled the deal in September.
When it comes to wages, the union recently offered not to pay out a possible increase for the time being, but rather to put it into a future fund for flexible reductions in working hours. VW rejected this as not sufficient.
IG Metall is threatening to expand the warning strikes
If there is no agreement again at the end of the marathon negotiations, the union is already threatening to expand the industrial action. “If the company doesn’t take this path with us now,” said IG Metall negotiator Thorsten Gröger at the start of the collective bargaining round on Monday, “then IG Metall’s escalation planning is in place.” There is a risk of a massive expansion of warning strikes in 2025.