At VW, a dispute is raging over the company’s strategy, which is now being carried out publicly. The head of the works council names plans from corporate boss Diess “nonsense”.
A row is raging at Germany’s model car manufacturer VW, which is now also being carried out publicly and via the media. The workforce is unsettled because CEO Herbert Diess is playing with the idea of cutting tens of thousands of jobs. The works council is furious and openly doubts the leadership qualities of the top Wolfsburg manager.
Daniela Cavallo, the head of the employee committee and at the same time a member of the supervisory board of the car company, continued to distance himself from Diess on Thursday after the arguments of the past few days and attacked the manager sharply. At a works meeting at the Wolfsburg headquarters, she accused him, according to the speech manuscript, of playing with the workforce’s fears of new job cuts and a lack of concept in the fight against the chip crisis.
At VW “not one too many people on board”
Cavallo cited speculations about the deletion of tens of thousands of jobs at the Volkswagen core brand, which Diess had fueled in the past few weeks, “substantive nonsense”. If the chairman of the board nevertheless publicly fires the topic again and again, that is “pretty sad”she criticized. “There is not one too many people on board here. You cannot negotiate an additional position with us!” The works council is traditionally very powerful at VW, and management cannot ignore employee representatives when making decisions.
Everyone at VW knows that the company will have to be fundamentally rebuilt in the course of the transformation of the automotive industry. But there are already numerous accompanying programs for this – and the employment guarantee until 2029 is basically in place. “The only thing our employees have heard from you over the past few weeks has been frivolous speculations about job losses”, I know Horse.
This is obviously not clear what that does with the motivation of the colleagues: “With the stroke of a pen, like it was nothing, just put a number of 30,000 in the room. And it takes almost 48 hours to finally comment on it – and then to say: Oh, everything wasn’t meant that way!” This also unsettles the employees – many of them have been on short-time work since the beginning of the Corona crisis. The people would have “Fear for their work, their families, their existence.”
Wolfsburg is currently lacking chips and parts in car manufacturing
While Diess deals with PR campaigns or poses with Tesla boss Elon Musk as a major competitor, the management of supply bottlenecks in-house leaves much to be desired, Cavallo grumbled: “What we see in semiconductors is an indictment. (…) You regularly provide us with nice photos of your excursions, but unfortunately still not with semiconductors.”
It is also not true when it is suggested that VW is less productive in Wolfsburg compared to Tesla – per capita are still in the main plant “a lot more vehicles” built. “The truth is: it is not the factory or the employees that are inefficient”, I know Horse. “We simply lack the parts with which we can build our cars.”
Diess wants to make the headquarters in Wolfsburg a central engine for the corporate restructuring. In front of tens of thousands of listeners at the works meeting, he reaffirmed the goals for the electrically and autonomously driving model Trinity, which is expected to start in 2026. “Wolfsburg in particular is important for the group and has to be the spearhead”, emphasized Diess according to his speech. But he also pointed out that the competition had to be kept under close scrutiny: “The next Golf must not be a Tesla! The next Golf must not come from China!”
Diess also responded to Cavallo’s harshly outlined concerns about further job cuts – but did not address the drastic figure of up to 30,000 that he had recently brought up to the irritation of many employees. “I would like your children and grandchildren to still have a secure job here with us in Wolfsburg in 2030”, he said. But: “The jobs that exist today will certainly decrease within the next 10 to 15 years – above all in administration at group level, but also in production and development.” At the same time, new and different work is added.
However, the chief executive admitted to the works council: “We have to talk to each other.” However, he also made it clear about Volkswagen’s future opportunities, especially in Lower Saxony: “It is not Herbert Diess or Daniela Cavallo who decide. The customers decide.”
Herbert Diess would have preferred to fly to investors in the USA
Diess initially canceled his participation in the information event, but after Cavallo intervened, he postponed a planned trip to US investors. “Only together can we make Volkswagen future-proof”he said. For that you have to have the group “move in time to change course”. With a view to competitor Tesla, which is about to start its new plant in Grünheide near Berlin, this means: “We mustn’t let Tesla destroy our location, our corporate headquarters!”
From Diess’ point of view, the VW headquarters has a good chance of “once again the flagship for auto production” to become. But for that to happen, the Trinity project must be a success. Overall, much less traditional labor is required for e-cars, which requires a lot of new skills. This: “We plan faster production times and more efficient forms of cooperation.”
It is questionable whether the manager was able to smooth things over in the company with his words. The dispute over the future of VW should therefore continue. After all – the carmaker’s share, which had fallen significantly in the past few days, rose again slightly on Thursday.
See in the video: The US company Tesla has been posting record numbers for three quarters in a row. Despite the corona-related crisis in the automotive industry, Tesla has earned more than ever.
Source From: Stern
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
