In the crisis surrounding VW, IG Metall is pushing ahead and wants to negotiate the savings plans quickly. A solution that has already prevented layoffs is conceivable.
IG Metall wants to negotiate quickly with VW about the new savings plans and bring forward the collective bargaining round planned for the autumn. In order to avoid redundancies, the union can also imagine a four-day week for all employees of the core brand.
“That could be one of the options,” said IG Metall Federal Chairwoman Christiane Benner on the sidelines of a collective bargaining conference in Hanover. “We should not leave any ideas unused as to how we can preserve jobs and locations.”
It is important that the plant closures and redundancies, which VW is no longer ruling out, are taken off the table, stressed Benner. “These are absolute red lines for us.” The company now wants to start a quick discussion with the group in order to negotiate solutions together. The collective bargaining round at Volkswagen, originally planned for autumn, is therefore to be brought forward and negotiated in parallel with the collective agreement for the entire industry if possible. This has been offered to VW, but has not yet received a response.
IG Metall sticks to wage demands for VW
In Lower Saxony, the collective bargaining round for the metal and electrical industries starts next Thursday, while negotiations on the VW in-house wage agreement are not due to begin until mid or late October. IG Metall is demanding a seven percent pay increase in each case.
Lower Saxony’s IG Metall head Thorsten Gröger stressed that VW did not want to deviate from this demand. “Even in phases where Volkswagen was doing exorbitantly better than the rest of the industry, we agreed to the same pay increases at Volkswagen.” There is therefore no reason to deviate from this principle now.
By introducing a four-day week, VW and the union had already prevented mass layoffs and the loss of 30,000 jobs in the early 1990s, when VW was in a deep crisis.
Europe’s largest carmaker announced on Monday that it would further tighten the austerity measures it has taken at its core brand VW in view of the worsening situation. Plant closures in Germany and redundancies are also no longer ruled out. The job security agreement agreed with the works council, which excludes redundancies until 2029, is to be terminated. For the first time in 30 years, there could then be layoffs at VW. According to the union, VW wants to use this to close a gap of five billion euros in the current austerity package.
Source: Stern
