Tension is escalating at Volkswagen, with the IG Metall union planning a company-wide protest day this Thursday. According to the news magazine “Focus,” labor protests are anticipated at German production sites, including locations such as Chemnitz, Emden, Hannover, Ingolstadt, Neckarsulm, Wolfsburg, and Zwickau, in response to potential cost-cutting measures.
Meanwhile, the Supervisory Board is scheduled to meet at the corporate headquarters on the Mittellandkanal. Observers expect that employees will strongly press for transparency regarding the potential expansion of the ongoing reduction program. Representatives from the company stated that “it cannot be accepted that the fears of the workforce are being exploited.” Jörg Schlagbauer, the head of the Audi works council, is also demanding clarity, telling “Focus” that all proposals and strategies must be immediately presented to the relevant committees. Audi’s top employee representative added that a decision will only be made once all details are available.
The mounting unrest within the conglomerate was triggered by a report in “Manager Magazin.” This report revealed that Europe’s largest automaker intends to cut up to an additional 50,000 jobs globally by the end of the decade, on top of the existing reduction of 50,000 positions across VW, Audi, Porsche, and the IT subsidiary Cariad. Moreover, key VW plants in Emden, Hannover, and Zwickau, along with the Audi plant in Neckarsulm, are currently threatened.
Analysts are also growing increasingly critical of the situation. UBS auto analyst Patrick Hummel estimates that Volkswagen faces a profit warning in the mid-to-high single-digit billion Euro range due to the restructuring costs.
