VW disaster: Lies criticizes VW: “Trust has broken down” | EUROtoday

Lower Saxony’s Economics Minister Olaf Lies criticizes the actions of Volkswagen through the deliberate austerity measures in Wolfsburg. “Something like this shakes the foundations of internal peace at Volkswagen,” mentioned the SPD politician to the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”. Above all, he talked about the termination of job safety.

“That doesn’t actually correspond to Volkswagen’s style.” Change is critical at VW. “But with this very offensive approach, a lot of trust was broken. I see that critically.”

Lies demanded {that a} resolution should now be discovered rapidly within the talks between VW and the union. “Negotiations consist of having to agree on compromises at some point,” mentioned the minister. «The findings are on the desk. Now now we have to seek out options rapidly.”

At the identical time, Lies warned of an extended impasse: “We can already see how big the concerns are that concern our colleagues, entire regions and of course us as politicians.” VW and IG Metall will meet for his or her third spherical of negotiations on November twenty first.

The nation rejects manufacturing unit closures

Lies reiterated the nation’s expectation to not shut factories. “Locations that we would give up now are locations that we need tomorrow to ensure production,” mentioned the minister. The demand for brand spanking new vehicles is at present weak. But he assumes that the automobile market will get better once more.

In September, Europe’s largest automobile producer terminated the employment safety scheme that had been in place for greater than 30 years and had beforehand excluded redundancies for operational causes. The closure of whole vegetation is not dominated out. In the present collective bargaining settlement with IG Metall, VW can also be demanding a flat-rate wage minimize of ten p.c.

Of the ten German VW vegetation, six are in Lower Saxony, together with the primary plant in Wolfsburg with greater than 60,000 staff. The state of Lower Saxony holds 20 p.c of the voting rights in VW and has a blocking minority towards vital selections. Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) and his deputy Julia Willie Hamburg (Greens) sit on the supervisory board for the state. Lies himself was a member of the VW management committee throughout his first time period as Economics Minister from 2013 to 2017.

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