Ahead of talks with Volkswagen management, the trade union IG Metall has threatened the automaker with strikes if it does not rescind the termination of collective bargaining agreements. The mood among the workforce has “reached the boiling point,” said Thorsten Gröger, IG Metall’s district leader for Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, in Hanover on Friday. “The executive board has long since exhausted its credit, and everything points to a conflict that could prove larger than anything this company has ever experienced.”
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IG Metall will “deepen the dialogue with the workforce” over the coming weeks, and—”because we have to, not because we want to”—the union will also “prepare for an escalation,” Gröger continued.
Representatives from IG Metall, the VW works council, and management are set to meet again on Friday for what is termed a “review discussion.” Employee representatives are demanding answers regarding the future of the automaker’s plants through the 2030s. In the 2024 collective bargaining agreement, VW management had made a series of commitments concerning investments and new products; however, the company’s executive board has since unveiled a more rigorous cost-cutting program.
From 2030 onwards, three VW plants—in Hanover, Zwickau, and Emden—as well as the Audi plant in Neckarsulm, are at risk. Consequently, employee representatives have expressed doubts regarding the future commitments made in 2024. An initial “review meeting” took place on September 30—the very same day that VW announced the termination of a number of collective bargaining agreements.
Gröger stated that September 30 marks a “watershed moment,” unprecedented in the company’s history. “We expect Volkswagen to reverse this breach of trust. A termination that has been issued can also be withdrawn,” explained the lead negotiator for the IG Metall union regarding the Volkswagen-specific collective agreement.
If the company fails to reach this “realization,” Gröger warned, “the consequences would be enormous.” He stated that the company has “until the end of October” to rescind the terminations. Otherwise, a “massive apparatus” will be set in motion to “prepare for industrial action at Volkswagen,” Gröger said. “We are not seeking conflict, but we are prepared for it.”
The industrial peace obligation ends on December 31. “The board members should therefore mark this date clearly in their calendars now,” Gröger added. Agreements with Volkswagen stipulate that December 3 is the latest possible date for collective bargaining negotiations to begin. However, the employee side is urging the company “not to waste any time and to join us at the negotiating table as early as November 24, in order to discuss the restoration of collective bargaining standards at Volkswagen.”
Author: AFP – oer/lt – Translated by Blackout News
Sources: AFP Press Portal