The news that VW may close factories in Germany for the first time in its history has led the workers’ committee of the German automaker to criticize the board of directors for suggesting the closure of production units and for threatening job security.
VW officials have already indicated that the company may not survive the transition to electric vehicles if it does not reduce costs. However, the president of the Volkswagen workers’ committee, Daniela Cavallo, has blamed the executive board for “not doing its job.”
“We do not have a labor cost problem. We do not have a personnel problem. We have an Executive Board that is not sufficiently focused on the core business. You cannot expect the workforce to bear the consequences of your mistakes,” Daniela Cavallo told the Executive Board in a room filled with thousands of workers, as reported by “Bloomberg.”
The head of the workers’ committee also stated that the announced measures would only be acceptable in a scenario where the entire business model was dead.
It is worth noting that VW currently employs around 700,000 workers who benefit from safe working conditions negotiated in the 1990s, and the unions do not intend to reverse these conditions, which could lead to a standoff with the company’s management in the near future.
The possibility of VW closing two production units in Germany was justified by Oliver Blume, CEO of Volkswagen, due to the “deteriorating economic environment and the new competitors entering Europe. Germany is losing competitiveness. As a company, we must act”.
