Volkswagen workers in Germany ready to strike in early December

Volkswagen workers are set to strike in Germany in early December and union IG Metall said in a circulated pamphlet that it is “necessary”.

The employee strikes across German production plants come after negotiations with management over proposed drastic cost-cutting measures collapsed.

“Accordingly, strikes are possible and also necessary from the beginning of December,” the union said.

“Volkswagen will determine at the negotiating table how long and how hard the conflict will be – the VW workforce throughout the country is ready to strike,” it added, according to RTE News.

Volkswagen plans to close at least three German plants

Volkswagen, like several other European car manufacturers, is dealing with intensifying competition from Chinese rivals, slowing demand for electric vehicles (EVs), and the German economy lagging for the last several months.

In October this year, the company revealed plans to shut down at least three German production plants, as well as cutting tens of thousands of jobs. It also demanded that the remaining workers accept a 10% pay cut.

This followed Volkswagen’s second profit warning in less than three months, with Volkswagen also saying that it would be outsourcing entire divisions and several tasks to outside service providers. The plants which would still be in production would also be downsized.

In October, when Volkswagen had called for employees to accept a 10% pay cut, Arne Meiswinkel, chief negotiator for Volkswagen AG, said in a press release on the company’s website: “We are very concerned about the current trend in the auto industry in Europe, and especially in Germany as a business location.

“The deterioration in Volkswagen’s figures for the last quarter underline, particularly for the Volkswagen brand with a margin of only 2.1 percent, makes this particularly clear. If we remain at this level, we will be unable to finance our future.

“Successful operations are a prerequisite for job security. And that is our goal. So one of the things we need to do is reduce our labour costs.”

However, the workers’ council has proposed that one of the solutions to cut labour costs could be for upper management to forfeit their bonuses.