After seven hours of negotiations with IG Metall, the Wolfsburg-based group introduced the primary particulars about how the corporate ought to get out of the disaster. Accordingly, there’s a threat of great wage cuts. The union is now asking what contribution managers and shareholders will make.
The beleaguered automobile producer Volkswagen has introduced its plan for a large wage discount after an extended second spherical of collective bargaining with the IG Metall union. The firm is dedicated to a ten p.c wage reduce and the elimination of a lot of particular bonuses for workers, mentioned VW negotiator Arne Meiswinkel on Wednesday night after virtually seven hours of negotiations in Wolfsburg. Even then, VW continues to be a extremely enticing employer in comparison with the business common.
“We urgently need labor cost relief to maintain our competitiveness. This requires a contribution from the workforce,” the VW supervisor continued. “Only if we find solutions together to achieve our financial goals can we imagine concrete prospects for the German locations and possible job security.”
Plans “unacceptable” based on union
IG Metall negotiator Thorsten Gröger described the plans as “unacceptable in both form and scale” and as a “brazen grab into the employees’ pockets”. VW introduced an extended “poison list” of financial savings factors, together with, along with wage cuts, zero wage agreements and a discount within the variety of coaching locations from 1,400 to 600.
However, the corporate has indicated that it needs to speak about plans to safe employment and places, Gröger continued. This is the “minimum requirement” for the union facet to not break off the negotiations instantly. “That means that a failure of the negotiations has been averted for the time being.”
The present negotiations are in regards to the so-called VW firm collective settlement. This presently solely applies to staff at VW places in West Germany. Workers within the three Saxon vegetation in Dresden, Chemnitz and Zwickau have to date been paid based on a separate collective settlement. In 2021, VW and IG Metall agreed that the corporate collective settlement ought to then additionally apply to the vegetation in East Germany. Last yr the union celebrated the seventy fifth anniversary of the corporate collective settlement with VW.
Savings plans ought to most likely embody manufacturing unit closures
According to earlier data from the works council and media studies, VW’s financial savings plans additionally embody a number of plant closures and big job cuts. In order to attain the outlined financial savings targets, “we can also imagine discussing the prospects of the locations and securing employment,” mentioned Meiswinkel.
“It is now the task of the collective bargaining parties to find common solutions,” the corporate consultant continued. “We have always successfully achieved this at Volkswagen in difficult situations in the past and we believe in it now too.” Gröger, in flip, criticized the truth that the corporate administration had not offered any details about what contributions high administration and shareholders have been making to overcoming the present disaster ought to present.
Works council boss Daniela Cavallo dampened hopes of a fast settlement on the negotiating desk. Plant closures and mass layoffs are nonetheless not off the desk. “Accordingly, I also caution against interpreting this as a first approximation,” she mentioned. “Today is at best the starting signal for a marathon in which both sides have finally understood that they have to reach the finish line together.” But, Cavallo continues: “At least there is now something on the negotiating table – even if it is miles away from ours ideas is removed.”
According to either side, technical negotiating teams have now been fashioned to proceed speaking to one another within the coming weeks. There will probably be a 3rd spherical of negotiations on November twenty first. The peace obligation ends on the finish of subsequent month, warning strikes can be doable from December 1st.
Like many European producers, VW is battling low gross sales, particularly for electrical automobiles, more and more robust competitors from China and on the similar time excessive prices in its house nation. The group introduced its quarterly figures on Wednesday morning and recorded a 63.7 p.c drop in income.
AFP/Reuters/dpa/me
https://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/article254274032/Volkswagen-Kriselnder-Autobauer-nennt-Details-zu-Sparplaenen-Kritik-von-IG-Metall.html