Volkswagen cuts prices by 4 billion, protests start: strikes and conferences | EUROtoday

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Workers on the Volkswagen Group in Germany stopped in the present day for an hour, blocking manufacturing in protest towards the corporate’s plan to shut some factories within the nation, an unprecedented transfer for the German automotive large.

The unions have organized conferences in eleven factories, the place they are going to replace staff on the progress of negotiations with the corporate. The begin of those protests kicks off a vital week for Volkswagen, which prepares to launch third-quarter outcomes midweek. Both gross sales and earnings are anticipated to say no.

As reported by the financial each day Handelsblatt, the board of administrators of the Wolfsburg group has ready a financial savings plan of round 4 billion euros. Among the measures envisaged, there’s a 10% discount in salaries and a suspension of wage will increase for 2025 and 2026. CEO Oliver Blume justifies these selections with the excessive prices linked to the Volkswagen model, which is going through a requirement declining in Europe and robust competitors from BYD, now the main international producer of electrical and plug-in hybrid automobiles, in China.

The unions, nevertheless, usually are not on board and level the finger on the administration, accusing it of passing on the implications of questionable selections to the employees: a poorly managed transition in direction of electrical energy and fewer incisive pricing insurance policies. “The management has not yet presented a clear plan for the future of Volkswagen,” Daniela Cavallo, president of the works council, commented in a e-newsletter.

Volkswagen goes by troublesome weeks. At the top of September, it issued its second revenue warning in simply three months. Even the group’s premium manufacturers, reminiscent of Audi and Porsche, which for years have been its most important sources of revenue, at the moment are going through new challenges. In explicit, Porsche has made it identified that it’s evaluating value cuts and a revision of the mannequin vary, following a collapse in demand in China.