Automotive News Europe — 2024-12-05
Automotive Industry
Volkswagen workers are gearing up for a second wave of walkouts across German plants on 9 December 2024, when management and labor leaders will hold a fourth round of talks over how to slash costs at the automaker’s namesake brand.
The IG Metall union said workers will walk out for four hours at nine different sites in so-called “warning” strikes, twice as long as the first round of industrial action. That will mean double the production time lost at VW’s German plants during the walkouts on 2 December 2024.
VW has demanded a 10% wage cut from workers, arguing it needs to slash costs and boost profit to defend market share in the face of cheap competition from China and a drop in European car demand. Executives have said that VW has at least three plants too many in Germany.
IG Metall criticized VW Group CEO Oliver Blume, who told 20,000 workers at VW’s main plant in Wolfsburg on 4 December 2024 that plant closures and pay cuts are necessary amid a weak European market, slower-than-expected take-up of EVs and new competitors “entering the market with unprecedented force.”
IG Metall negotiator Thorsten Groeger said: “It borders on mockery when Oliver Blume stands in front of the workforce and wishes them a Merry Christmas, while at the same time the VW board would prefer to put letters of termination under the Christmas tree for the employees.”
“We will now step up our efforts on December 9th and thus increase the pressure on the company at the negotiating table,” Groeger said in a statement on 5 December 2024.
VW on 5 December 2024 said the management and workers representatives remained in dialogue to collaboratively develop viable, long-term solutions that balance economic stability and secure employment prospects.
During a conference hosted by Goldman Sachs in London on 5 December 2024, VW Chief Financial Officer Arno Antlitz said the company needs to take “decisive action” at its German factories to return them to full operating capacity.
“Without improving their efficiency and performance, we cannot maintain current employment level,” Antlitz said.
Capacity utilization across VW’s German factory network has fallen over the past two decades to less than 60%, Bernstein analysts wrote in a November note, with an estimated unused capacity of as much as 800,000 units.
On the morning of 9 December 2024, thousands of VW employees are expected to attend a rally in Wolfsburg, where VW is headquartered, shortly before the start of negotiations.
Workers could increase pressure if no agreement is struck, union officials have signaled, leading to longer and possibly even open-ended strikes.