Social conflict is now inevitable for the leading European manufacturer: all Volkswagen employees in Germany are called to stop work from Monday to oppose the thousands of planned job cuts.
This is the first step in a movement which could take on unprecedented proportions if management and staff representatives cannot reach agreement on cost-saving measures to restructure the group in crisis.
A prospect which arises in the middle of the campaign for the early legislative elections in Germany.
“Warning strikes will begin on Monday in all factories,” Thorsten Gröger, the negotiator for the IG Metall union, announced in a press release on Sunday, at the end of the compulsory social dialogue period for 120,000 employees of the brand in Germany.
“If necessary, this will be the toughest collective bargaining battle that Volkswagen has ever known,” he warns, holding management “responsible, at the negotiating table, for the duration and intensity of this confrontation” .
In a separate statement, Volkswagen said it “respects employees' rights” and believes in “constructive dialogue”, under the principle of co-management, to “achieve a sustainable and collectively supported solution”.
The company specifies that it has “anticipated targeted measures to secure emergency supplies” during the movement.
In the country, Volkswagen has ten car production sites and around 300,000 employees, including 120,000 for the VW brand, the most affected by the savings plan.
IG Metall, the powerful metallurgical union, said it was ready “for a social conflict such as the Federal Republic has not experienced for decades”.
The leading European manufacturer launched an unprecedented cost hunt in September, aiming for savings of several billion euros to improve its competitiveness.
Three negotiation sessions between management and union took place and “the difference between positions is still enormous”, according to Thorsten Gröger.
The gap even widened with management's rejection on Friday of a union counter-proposal aimed at reducing costs without having to close factories in Germany.
– Historic first –
The group's management continues to consider closing factories in Germany, three according to the union, which would be a first in the group's history.
The two parties will meet on December 9 in Wolfsburg for a fourth round of negotiations.
Flagship of the German automobile industry, Volkswagen is suffering from the slowdown in the new vehicle market, Chinese competition, battery models that are not attractive enough, and higher labor costs than its rivals, according to experts.
The crisis at Volkswagen reflects the difficulties of German industry, faced in recent months with a host of social plans in the automobile, chemical and steel sectors, while the country's economic activity is expected to contract in 2024 , for the second year in a row.
– Campaign theme –
Political paralysis has also darkened the horizon since the breakdown of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition at the beginning of November, which led to the organization of early elections on February 23.
Reviving the economy has emerged as a central issue of the campaign.
Thus on Saturday, the social democratic chancellor (SPD) Olaf Scholz and the leader of the conservatives (CDU) Friedrich Merz opposed each other on the subject through meetings.
Favorite in the polls, Friedrich Merz castigated “the green-tinged interventionism in every area of life, every business, every sector of activity” of the Greens and the SPD, allies within the government coalition.
Olaf Scholz, for whom the CDU “always has the same recipe”, made up of tax cuts for businesses, proposed to reimburse 10% of taxes on the sums invested by businesses in the country.
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