Germany: On the situation at Volkswagen

We hereby publish an unofficial translation of a follow-up article by DemVolkeDienen. We previously have been publishing translations on the matter.

Volkswagen: No one is safe

“The Management wants to close at least three VW plants in Germany,” explained Daniela Cavallo, head of the Workers Council of IG Metall, at an information event for the workers in Wolfsburg today.

All remaining sites will also be “shrunken”, i.e. workers, presumably temporary workers first, will be fired. According to the workers council, the Volkswagen plant in Osnabrück, which recently failed to receive a hoped-for follow-up order from Porsche, is particularly at risk. The “Transparent Factory” is also at risk and VW is openly considering ending vehicle production in Dresden. However, these two plants are the two smallest locations, with low production volumes. This should not be enough to eliminate the declared existing overcapacity of around 500,000 cars per year.

In addition, the Management is planning so-called “compulsory redundancies”, which could result in the loss of tens of thousands of jobs. Entire departments are to be closed, some of which are to be relocated abroad. Manager Magazin’ claims that up to 30,000 workers are to be kicked out. “All German VW plants are affected by these plans. None of them are safe,” said Cavallo.

Around 120,000 workers slog for Volkswagen in Germany for the VW brand alone, in ten plants, six in Lower Saxony, three in Saxony and one in Hessen. The monopolist now wants them to receive ten percent less wages across the board. At the same time, Volkswagen is demanding no wage increases over the next two years.

In September, VW terminated the job security agreement that had been in place for more than 30 years. Firings for operational reasons would be possible from mid-2025 as we reported. The day after tomorrow, the management and the IG Metall trade union will meet for their second round of negotiations on the VW in-house wage agreement.

05.09.2024, Sachsen, Zwickau: Mit lautstarken Protesten positioniert sich die Belegschaft aus dem Volkswagen Werk in Zwickau kurz vor Beginn der Betriebsversammlung gegen die Sparpläne des Vorstands. Europas größter Autobauer hatte angekündigt, angesichts der sich zuspitzenden Lage den eingeschlagenen Sparkurs bei der Kernmarke VW noch einmal zu verschärfen. Auch Werkschließungen in Deutschland und betriebsbedingte Kündigungen werden nicht länger ausgeschlossen. Foto: Hendrik Schmidt/dpa +++ dpa-Bildfunk +++

IG Metall has announced that they are “on the verge of escalation”. The bosses would have to reckon with resistance “that they could not have imagined”! The “peace obligation” ends in December and strikes would be possible. The first massive waves of redundancies could occur from the middle of next year, when the job security ends.

As the godfather of Hamburg, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, has now also stated that the aim is to “preserve and secure jobs”, state intervention and a corporate “solution” are becoming more likely. Similar demands have also been made by the CDU/CSU.

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