2023-11-29 10:32:00
The German automobile concern Volkswagen AG has been experiencing a lot of difficulties lately. Loss of leadership in the key market of China, revision of electric vehicle plans and shutdown of factories in Europe, and in North America, Volkswagen was unable to compete with local manufacturers, primarily Tesla. But that’s not all. Recently, at the company headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany, a meeting was held between Volkswagen executives and trade union representatives. The discussion turned out to be difficult, because upcoming staff reductions were on the agenda. According to the agency Archyde.comthe company’s top managers made very loud statements bordering on panic.
“Given the current structures, processes and high costs, the Volkswagen brand is no longer competitive,” said Volkswagen brand head Thomas Schäfer (pictured below). It has now been decided to reduce costs by 10 billion euros at once, and one of the mechanisms to achieve this goal should be mass layoffs of employees. As a result, the company hopes to stand firmly on its feet and be ready for all the challenges of the rapidly changing automotive market with its high competition and greatly changed consumer tastes.
“We need to be honest and courageous enough to jettison everything that is duplicative within the company or is simply ballast that we don’t need to achieve good results,” suggested another board member, Gunnar Kilian, responsible for human resources. . However, Mr. Kilian hopes that employees will “throw themselves overboard,” ideally by retiring partially or early. In addition, he noted that cutting the salary fund is not the main measure to save those same 10 billion euros, and that other mechanisms will be made public before the end of the year.
The current dire situation at Volkswagen comes as no surprise to senior management. Back in the middle of summer, Thomas Schäfer warned that “The roof is on fire,” and now the first real actions have followed.
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