According to the union, almost 100,000 employees took part in the first wave of warning strikes against billions in cuts at the Volkswagen Group. The strike, which lasted two hours per shift, ended Tuesday morning. Now negotiations are taking place again.
“The first warning strikes were an absolutely determined signal from the workforce against Volkswagen’s brutal management plans,” said IG Metall negotiator Thorsten Gröger. Nearly 100,000 workers made it loudly clear that they would fight for their jobs, their families and their futures. “That was the first, powerful impact of a winter of protests!” In the collective bargaining dispute over pay cuts, factory closures and job losses, IG Metall called for warning strikes at nine of the ten German VW locations on Monday.
Will there be another escalation next Monday?
This Monday, representatives of companies and workers will meet in Wolfsburg for their next round of collective bargaining. Works council boss Daniela Cavallo then expects a decision to be made: either there will be rapprochement, or there will be further escalation.
Union demands a future for all locations
The collective labor agreement negotiation round concerns the remuneration of the approximately 120,000 employees in the Volkswagen AG factories, where a separate own rate applies. In addition, more than 10,000 employees work at VW Sachsen, for whom coordination with the company wage agreement has been agreed in 2021. VW is demanding a ten percent pay cut due to the company’s difficult situation. There are also factory closures and layoffs for operational reasons. IG Metall wants to prevent this and instead advocates a future for all locations – without factory closures and layoffs.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
