Complicated situation in Germany for Volkswagen which is evaluating the closure of some of the group’s plants to cope with the need to reduce costs by 10 billion euros. The sales of electric cars that are not taking off and the ambitious plans of the company are forcing the Wolfsburg giant to think about closing some sites and the consequent dismissal of some workers. The unions, however, are not having it and are promising a fight.
Unions on the attack
Germany’s largest union, which sits on Volkswagen’s supervisory board, has said, for example, that it will leave no stone unturned in finding alternatives to the automaker’s threats to close plants. A four-day workweek is on the table as an option to avoid closures. Christiane Benner, IG Metall’s national chairwoman, said that was “conceivable” and that the union “He would leave no idea unexplored. We need forward-looking ideas about where potential lies. VW has survived difficult situations before.” During the 1990s and later in the early 2000s the company actually adopted similar solutions but it was the company itself that stopped the trend in 2006 stating that it was losing competitiveness.
Volkswagen ready for decisive action
In the meeting in Wolfsburg with the workers, attended by over 16,000 employees present and connected via streaming, there were moments of tension but VW’s financial director Arno Anlitz explained how the moment is critical and how the company intends to take drastic decisions to avoid the situation from getting worse, not blaming the delicate moment on the crisis in the EV market or with the range: “We are short about 500,000 cars in sales, which is roughly the volume of two factories. And that has nothing to do with our products or poor sales performance. The market simply doesn’t exist anymore. We still have a year, maybe two years, to turn things around, but we have to use that time.” No reference therefore to which plants would be at risk but according to some rumours to close but according to some rumours the decision could fall on Dresden, Osnabrück and Emden.
The battle of Daniela Cavallo
Meanwhile, the unions are promising a battle, with Daniela Cavallo ready for a head-on clash with the company: as happened to Herbert Diess, Oliver Blume could also have to deal with the aggressive unionist, president of the works council: “With me, there will be no closure in this country. Closing factories or laying off employees for operational reasons is only permissible in a scenario when the entire business model is dead. But that is not the case. Volkswagen is not suffering from its German locations or German personnel costs, but from the fact that the board of directors is not doing its job.”
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