Crisis at Volkswagen
VW boss insists on closing factories
In the dispute over savings at VW, the company remains tough: capacities should be reduced quickly. IG Metall reacts to the collective bargaining round with warning strikes at the beginning of December.
Despite resistance from its employees, Volkswagen is sticking to its plans to close plants in Germany. “We have to reduce our capacities and adapt to the new realities,” said VW brand boss Thomas Schäfer to “Welt am Sonntag”. This included component locations and vehicle factories. When asked whether VW could avoid closing a plant, Schäfer said: “We don’t see that happening at the moment.”
Schäfer also did not want to rule out the threatened dismissals. Job cuts “across the demographic curve and with the current instruments such as partial retirement and termination offers will not be enough,” he said. That would take too long. When reorganizing the brand, he is thinking about a period of three or four years.
Schäfer agreed to IG Metall’s demand for salary cuts in management. “If there is an agreement in the collective bargaining, then for me it is part of it that the board and management make a contribution,” he said. The board’s fixed salary has been reduced by five percent since January, and the management has also foregone an inflation compensation of 1,000 euros and a 3.5 percent salary increase.
There are warning strikes at VW at the beginning of December. The IG Metall collective bargaining committee decided this unanimously, as the union announced on Friday. After the unsuccessful collective bargaining round on Thursday, the aim was to increase the pressure on the company. The union initially did not provide details about dates and affected locations.
dpa
Source: Stern
