Volkswagen AG workers across Germany plan to stage walkouts starting today after labor leaders and management failed to reach an agreement over how to slash costs at the carmaker’s namesake brand.
“If necessary, this will be the toughest collective bargaining battle Volkswagen has ever seen,” said Thorsten Groeger, the IG Metall union’s lead negotiator in the Volkswagen talks. Warning strikes would begin at all plants, he added.
“Volkswagen has set fire to our collective agreements,” Groeger said, adding that actions by management were making the situation worse.
Photo: AP
The company is seeking a constructive dialogue to achieve a jointly supported solution, a Volkswagen spokesman said yesterday, adding that the company has taken specific measures in response to the planned walkouts.
The company’s management and labor leaders have been at loggerheads over how to cope with a drop in demand for electric vehicles, higher operational costs and increasing competition from Chinese manufacturers.
While management has said the company needs to shutter three German factories and lay off thousands of workers, union representatives have pushed to keep plants open.
Ahead of talks last month, the union and Volkswagen’s works councils put forward a series of proposals they said would save 1.5 billion euros (US$1.6 billion) in labor costs without the need for site closures.
These included proposals for management and staff to waive bonuses. The union also said it could drop a demand for pay raises in exchange for working shorter hours at some factories.
However, Volkswagen on Friday dismissed the unionists’ most recent proposals to avoid factory closures as insufficient.
While the measures could help in the short term, they would not lead “to any long-term financial relief for the company in the coming years,” the company said.
In Germany, unions often organize warning strikes — or temporary walkouts — to put pressure on management when wage negotiations are deadlocked.
Volkswagen’s corporate structure gives workers a strong voice in key decisions, making it difficult for management to unilaterally push through painful cost cuts. Employee representatives occupy half of the company’s supervisory board seats, while the government of Volkswagen’s home state of Lower Saxony holds an additional two seats.
The company has some 120,000 employees in Germany.
Additional reporting by AFP
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