Volkswagen Strikes a Deal With Union, Won’t Close Factories After All

Volkswagen gained’t have to shut any of its factories in Germany in any case. The automaker has reached an settlement with its IG Metall union that may preserve all 10 of the automaker’s vegetation open in its house nation. The automaker can be guaranteeing its employees jobs till the tip of 2030.

In accordance with The New York Occasions, the union agreed with the automaker to tug its request for a wage enhance. It gained’t ask once more till 2031. The brand new settlement arrives after a months-long battle about the way forward for the model’s operations in Germany within the face of dwindling gross sales and demand.

“No web site shall be closed, nobody shall be made redundant and our firm wage settlement shall be secured for the long run,” Daniela Cavallo, the pinnacle of the works council at Volkswagen, stated in an announcement.

Nevertheless, Volkswagen has additionally introduced it needs to chop 35,000 jobs, in accordance with Autocar. It at the moment has about 120,000 workers in Germany, and it’ll work to cut back its headcount over the following 5 years with early retirement packages and different voluntary measures because it appears to be like to cut back prices. Regardless that VW will preserve all its factories open, it’ll repurpose two of them.

Final month, Volkswagen CEO Thomas Schaefer stated that the model would wish to shut factories and drive layoffs. Even the corporate’s works council had conceded in November that wage cuts is likely to be wanted. Rumors steered VW’s low-volume Dresden facility, the place it builds ID.3s, and its Osnabruck plant, the place it builds the Porsche 718, would possibly even be on the chopping block. However that doesn’t seem like the case anymore, regardless of the market’s waning demand for EVs and the tip of 718 manufacturing. 

Volkwagen has needed to make some robust choices about its enterprise this 12 months, together with deciding to promote one in every of its factories in China. The corporate cited “financial causes” for the transfer, though it’s promising to introduce 18 new fashions within the Chinese language market by 2030.