Volkswagen: VW supervisory board ends without clarity on savings plans
After the meeting of its supervisory board on possible savings, VW continues to provide no information on possible plant closures and job cuts. At today’s meeting, the Group’s Executive Board presented the Supervisory Board with an extensive package of measures with 12 initiatives and the 2030 target, the Group announced after the meeting. The committee met at 4 p.m. to discuss possible savings plans by the board of directors.
“With our future plan, we are moving into the next phase of transformation on our own,” CEO Oliver Blume is quoted in the statement. The model range should be gradually streamlined by up to 50 percent and the number of possible equipment options should be reduced by up to 75 percent. He did not provide any information about possible job cuts and factory closures, which the media had previously reported on.
Works council boss: “It’s enough!”
Works council boss Daniela Cavallo was angry after the meeting. She asked Blume to take a stand with the workforce tomorrow, Friday, and to comment unequivocally on the rumors about the alleged board plans.
“It is enough! “The last straw has come,” said Cavallo, according to the works council newspaper. “The way the board treats the workforce can no longer be surpassed in terms of disrespect. Oliver Blume now has a duty to at least limit this massive damage.”
“We will also have to reduce excess capacity”
CEO Oliver Blume had already announced in the spring that he was working on a new “target image for 2030” for the group and that he also wanted to significantly tighten austerity measures. According to “Manager Magazin”, up to 100,000 jobs could be lost worldwide, twice as many as previously planned. Four VW Group plants in Germany are even threatened with closure: Hanover, Emden, Zwickau and Neckarsulm.
The company itself has not yet commented on the details. “The exact contents of the future plan and the necessary measures associated with it will be discussed today between the Supervisory Board and the Executive Board Volkswagen AG discussed,” a spokesman said before the meeting. Among other things, this involves reducing complexity, streamlining participation, and aligning development and production more regionally: “And yes, we will also have to reduce excess capacity.”
IG Metall protests
The consultation was accompanied by loud protests from the union. There were protests against the austerity plans at more than a dozen locations. In Wolfsburg, around 500 people came to a rally directly at the executive board tower where the supervisory board met.
In Emden, IG Metall even had 1,500 participants. There were further actions in Neckarsulm, Braunschweig, Stuttgart, Hanover, Kassel, Chemnitz, Dresden, Zwickau, Leipzig, Munich, Nuremberg, Salzgitter and Osnabrück.
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