Negotiations are now underway

Volkswagen: 100,000 participants in warning strikes

(Bild: APA/AFP/JENS SCHLUETER)

According to the trade union, almost 100,000 employees took part in the first wave of warning strikes against multi-billion euro cuts at the Volkswagen Group. The strike, which lasted two hours on each shift, ended on Tuesday morning. Negotiations are now underway again.

"The first warning strikes were an absolutely resolute signal from the workforce against Volkswagen's harsh Board of Management plans," said Thorsten Gröger, IG Metall's chief negotiator. Almost 100,000 employees had made it loudly clear that they would fight for their jobs, their families and their future. "That was the first, powerful impact of a winter of protest!" In the wage dispute over wage cuts, plant closures and job cuts, IG Metall had called for warning strikes at nine of VW's ten German sites on Monday.

Head of the Works Council Daniela Cavallo(Bild: APA/AP)

Will there be another escalation next Monday?
Next Monday, representatives of the company and employees will meet in Wolfsburg for their next round of collective bargaining. Works Council Chairwoman Daniela Cavallo expects the course to be set: either there will be a rapprochement or a further escalation.

Union demands future for all sites
The collective bargaining round concerns the pay of around 120,000 employees at the Volkswagen AG plants, where a separate company wage agreement applies. In addition, there are more than 10,000 employees at VW Saxony, for whom an alignment with the company pay scale was agreed in 2021. VW is demanding a ten percent pay cut due to the Group's difficult situation. Plant closures and compulsory redundancies are also on the cards. IG Metall wants to prevent this and is instead demanding a future for all locations - without plant closures and compulsory redundancies.