2024-09-25 14:54:08
The Volkswagen Group and IG Metall launched their traditional price negotiations earlier than expected on Wednesday, in a tense context. The manufacturer does not rule out factory closures in Germany.
Price negotiations for the 120,000 employees at six VW factories in western Germany were scheduled for the end of October. They were finally brought forward by a month, as a matter of urgency, after the management announceda clean-up plan that could result in tens of thousands of job cuts at the manufacturer.
30,000 positions are said to be in the hot seata figure not confirmed by the company. On Wednesday, thousands of employees greeted the management delegation with a chorus of whistles in Hanover, in front of the building that will house the negotiations for several weeks.
“VW will reap the resistance sown by top management. If VW wants to regain leadership, it will not happen without the employees.”
An agreement before the beginning of December
“We are at the beginning of a conflict with a company that has caused a lot of controversy,” recalls Thorsten Gröger, the chief negotiator for the wages side.
“VW will reap the resistance sown by top management. If VW wants to regain leadership, it won’t happen without employeesWith us, it will not be possible to talk about factory closures or mass layoffs. Volkswagen to present future planreduce bureaucracy and develop a range of models that appeal,” he continues.
On the management side, expectations are just as high. “I expect the employee representatives to move considerably so that we can make progress on the cost issue,” replies Oliver Blume, the group’s chairman. In accordance with the principles of co-management, The two sides now have until early December to reach an agreement, otherwise long and costly strikes could begin for the manufacturer..
“There is no crisis at VW, but management is afraid of a coming crisis.”
Two distant and “understandable” positions
The starting positions of the negotiators have rarely been so far apart. On the one hand, IG Metal who rstill claims 7% salary increase for VW employees, as for the entire automobile industry, and has made any plant closures in Germany or job cuts an “uncrossable red line”.
On the other hand, the management according to which Production costs in Germany are said to be too highand which assures that it will have to make 5 billion euros of savings in addition to the 10 billion euros already planned by the sanitation plan adopted in 2023.
“Both positions are understandable,” said one analyst, who wished to remain anonymous. “But it is important to remember that there is currently no crisis at VW. The group made 17.9 billion euros in profits last year, as in previous years. There is no crisis at VW, but management is afraid of a future crisis.”
©IMAGO/Sylvio Dittrich
Back to the four-day week?
According to him, the Brussels plant, the Dresden plant and perhaps the small Osnabrück site could bear the brunt of the group’s bleaker future prospects and poor sales of electric vehicles since the government – sanctioned by the Constitutional Court – ended subsidies.
Several scenarios are possible for a way out of the crisis. In particular, the return to the four-day or four and a half day weeka tool already tested in 1993. From 1994, the working week had gone from 36 to 28.8 hours per week in the group’s factories, i.e. 20% less working time, for a 10% reduction in salary.
The model – which at the time avoided 30,000 layoffs – was gradually abolished from 2006, in exchange for a guarantee of employment until 2030. It is this last point that – contrary to the rules of co-management – management wants to unilaterally eliminate from July 2025.
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