Wolfsburg's VW workforce expresses resentment about impending austerity measures

Wolfsburg's VW workforce expresses resentment about impending austerity measures

In the Volkswagen Stammwerk Wolfsburg, it will be exciting on Wednesday, as the workforce will be informed about the current savings plans at a company meeting. The head of works council Daniela Cavallo announced that the meeting will be well attended and that the concerns of the employees could be expressed loudly. The employees, who sometimes felt in a stable position, are now fighting with partly existential fears due to the company's announced austerity measures.

In the past time, the works council supported the implementation of austerity measures, including job cuts through partial retirement regulations and severance payment programs. However, the corporate management no longer sees these measures to be sufficient to achieve the savings targets. According to the "Handelsblatt" there is a gap of two to three billion euros, which urgently needs to be closed.

planned factory closures and austerity measures

The Volkswagen brand boss Thomas Schäfer will personally speak to the workforce on Wednesday and inform about the upcoming austerity measures. The worrying topics also include possible factory closures and layoffs, to which unions and politicians have already reacted with great concern. The fact that the group can no longer rule out location closings in Germany has also heated up the mood among the employees.

Especially in Emden, where the work was recently rebuilt for 1.3 billion euros to produce electric vehicles, the uncertainty is great. A works meeting is also planned there for Thursday, in which the local works council wants to comment on the possible new savings measures.

The situation describes Volkswagen as "extremely tense". Temporary workers have already been released and shifts have been dismissed in the past few months, which led to increased pressure on the remaining employees. The works council has already announced "massive resistance" against the savings to secure the jobs in the affected locations.

The announcement of a "perspective workshop", which is to be set up at all locations, is an attempt by the company to offer employees a certain perspective. The workshops are supposed to start in October and could be an answer to the uncertainty caused by the austerity measures.

In the meantime, the workforce remains concerned and wonders what the next steps of the company will be and how it is about its jobs and the future of Volkswagen. The company faces a major challenge not to secure profitability, as it were, and at the same time not to lose the trust of the employees. The coming days and the results of the company meetings will be decisive for how the situation will develop.