Volkswagen Workers Willing to Give Up Wages to Avoid Factory Closures
Volkswagen workers in Germany, 2024. X/ @AutoNewsEurope
November 20, 2024 Hour: 10:51 am
Currently, the company is considering shutting down at least three of its ten plants in Germany.
On Tuesday, the IG Metall union and Volkswagen’s Works Council announced a plan to reduce labor costs through wage concessions, aiming to save the company €1.5 billion and prevent factory closures in Germany. The company and unions will meet again tomorrow for the third round of wage negotiations during a turbulent time for Europe’s largest automaker.
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This comes after the works council revealed that Volkswagen is considering shutting down at least three of its ten plants in Germany. Against this backdrop, employees have proposed a plan to help Volkswagen save approximately €1.5 billion through changes to personnel costs based on two main measures.
First, they propose that the wage increases agreed upon for the German metal and electrical industry not be paid out but instead be transferred to a solidarity fund. This fund would allow the company to reduce or make work schedules more flexible when necessary without affecting the number of employees.
The industry agreement includes a 5.1 percent wage increase in two phases by 2026. The solidarity fund would also include part of all employees’ bonuses, including those of the management board, during 2025 and 2026.
As a result, workers’ monthly salaries would remain the same, while the company could ensure the long-term security of all its plants and maintain job prospects. Thorsten Gröger, the IG Metall representative for Lower Saxony, reiterated the threat of strikes, which could begin in December if the company continues with its plant closure plans.
“If the Executive Committee insists on its extreme proposals and plant closures, it will bear responsibility for leading us into a labor conflict in the factories unlike anything seen before in this country,” he said on Wednesday during a press conference.
Volkswagen employs approximately 120,000 workers in Germany and operates 10 plants: Wolfsburg, Emden, Osnabrück, Hanover, Zwickau, Dresden, Kassel, Salzgitter, Braunschweig, and Chemnitz.
teleSUR/ JF Source: EFE