Hundreds of staff at 9 Volkswagen factories throughout Germany, together with its EV-only manufacturing unit, are happening strike this morning, bringing meeting strains to a grinding halt within the battle over the slashed pay, misplaced jobs, and the automaker’s future.
The walkouts, scheduled Monday morning, are deliberate to final a number of hours and function a warning of potential 24-hour strikes on the horizon, or much more drastic measures going ahead, Reuters reviews. The IG Metall union, which represents 120,000 Volkswagen staff, has mentioned it’ll take the struggle all the way in which if it has to.
“If obligatory, this can change into the hardest wage dispute Volkswagen has ever seen,” IG Metall’s chief negotiator Thorsten Groeger mentioned in an announcement. “How lengthy and intense this dispute might be is Volkswagen’s duty on the negotiating desk.”
He added: “Volkswagen has set our collective bargaining agreements on hearth, and as a substitute of extinguishing this fireplace throughout three rounds of negotiations, the administration board retains throwing open barrels of gasoline onto it.”
The strike comes after weeks of collective bargaining negotiations through which the Volkswagen didn’t again down from its plan to doubtlessly slash 1000’s of jobs and shut factories in Germany – a primary within the automaker’s 87-year historical past within the nation. Volkswagen plans to shut a minimum of three factories, lay off 1000’s of staff, and trim pay for these remaining by 10%, all because it fights to remain alive amid stiff competitors from China.
The strikes in the present day embrace Volkswagen’s headquarters in Wolfsburg, in addition to demonstrations on the Hanover plant, which employs round 14,000 folks. Demonstrations are additionally anticipated at part and auto crops together with Emdem, Saltzgitter, and Brunswick.
IG Metall has additionally known as on workers of VW’s EV-only plant Zwickau, run by a Volkswagen subsidiary, to strike on Monday and Tuesday.
In late October, Volkswagen introduced that it could formally shut its Audi plant in Brussels the place it makes the Audi Q8 E-Tron after big rallies blocked the Belgian capital over the potential closing of the plant.
At the moment’s walkouts are the biggest at Volkswagen’s German operation since 2018, with that strike involving 50,000 staff over pay disputes.
This comes at a time when VW is radically restructuring its enterprise to chop prices, whereas looking for to streamline manufacturing and improvement processes, shaving off months on the event cycles of particular tasks to assist tighten the belts, all whereas rethinking its EV retail mannequin to remain extra aggressive. Volkswagen has been dealing with a steep decline in gross sales in China, which is its core market, whereas concurrently dealing with challenges from BYD and different Chinese language automakers getting into the European market.
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