Car industry VW plans to close at least three plants in Germany
VW and the Works Council have been wrestling for weeks over possible plant closures and redundancies. Now, according to the Works Council, concrete plans are on the table.
28.10.2024, 11:24
28.10.2024, 11:34
SDA
According to the Works Council, Volkswagen wants to close several plants in Germany and cut tens of thousands of jobs. "The Board of Management wants to close at least three VW plants in Germany," said Group Works Council Chairwoman Daniela Cavallo at an information event for the workforce in Wolfsburg. She added that all remaining sites would also be downsized. The Group has now informed the employees about these plans.
According to the works council, the plant in Osnabrück, which recently lost a hoped-for follow-up order from Porsche, is particularly at risk. The Executive Board is also planning compulsory redundancies, said Cavallo. According to the Works Council, tens of thousands of jobs are at risk. Entire departments are to be closed or relocated abroad.
Works Council: no plant is safe
"All German VW plants are affected by these plans. None of them are safe," said Cavallo, without giving any further details. VW employs around 120,000 people in Germany, around half of them in Wolfsburg. The VW brand operates a total of ten plants in Germany, six of which are in Lower Saxony, three in Saxony and one in Hesse.
In September, VW terminated the job security scheme that had been in place for more than 30 years. Redundancies would be possible from mid-2025.
On Wednesday, the Group and the IG Metall trade union will meet for their second round of negotiations on the VW in-house wage agreement. In the first round in September, VW had already rejected IG Metall's demands for a seven percent increase and instead pushed for savings. VW had not yet provided any further details.
According to Cavallo, VW is now demanding a ten percent pay cut and zero rounds over the next two years. The "Handelsblatt" had previously reported on this. VW had announced at the beginning of September that it would no longer rule out plant closures and compulsory redundancies.
