German automotive giant [1]Volkswagen (VW) plans on shutting at least
  three plants in [2]Germany, the company's works council said on Monday.

  The reported factory closure plans are a measure that [3]VW recently
  said it could not rule out amid dwindling sales.

  "Management is absolutely serious about all this. This is not
  saber-rattling in the collective bargaining round," the Reuters news
  agency cited Daniela Cavallo, Volkswagen's works council head, as
  telling several hundred employees in Wolfsburg.

  "This is the plan of Germany's largest industrial group to start the
  sell-off in its home country of Germany," Cavallo added, without
  specifying which plants would be affected or how many of the company's
  nearly 300,000 staff in Germany could be laid off.

German automobile industry faces a looming recession

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  "All German VW plants are affected by these plans. None of them are
  safe," said Cavallo as she addressed VW workers at [5]the company's
  Wolfsburg headquarters.

  Cavallo said that VW management is also demanding a 10% pay cut and no
  other pay raises for the next two years. Cavallo and other labor
  leaders at VW vowed fierce resistance to the cutbacks.
  Daniela Cavallo, Volkswagen's works council head addresses a crowd of
  protesting workers Volkswagen's works council head, Daniela Cavallo
  told employees that all German VW plants would be impacted and that
  none were safeImage: Julian Stratenschulte/dpa/picture alliance

VW says company at 'decisive point' in history

  Responding to an request for comment from VW, the company said it is
  "not taking part in speculation surrounding the confidential talks"
  with the IG Metall trade union, which represents a large proportion of
  the company's workforce.

  "Volkswagen is at a decisive point in its corporate history. The
  situation is serious, and the responsibility of the negotiating
  partners is immense," the company added.

  "Without comprehensive measures to restore our competitiveness, we will
  not be able to afford essential future investments," the statement
  quotes Human Resources official Gunnar Kilian.

  "Among the reasons for the necessary restructurings is the fact that
  the European automobile market has shrunk by two million vehicles since
  2020. It is stagnating and will not recover in the foreseeable future.
  Volkswagen has a share of about 25 percent of this market. That means
  the company is short about 500,000 cars," the VW said in an emailed
  statement.

Workers' union expresses outrage

  The IG Metall trade union has decried the news.

  "This is a deep stab in the heart of the hard-working VW workforce,"
  German news agency DPA quoted IG Metall District Manager Thorsten
  Gröger as saying.

VW mulls German job cuts, factory closures as sales plummet

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  "We expect Volkswagen and its board of management to outline viable
  concepts for the future at the negotiating table, instead of fantasies
  of cutbacks, where the employer side has so far presented little more
  than empty phrases."

  VW's CEO Thomas Schäfer said in a statement that costs at plants in
  Germany have become particularly high.

  "We cannot continue as before," Schäfer said. "We are not productive
  enough at our German sites and our factory costs are currently 25% to
  50% higher than we had planned. This means that individual German
  plants are twice as expensive as the competition."

  [7]European carmakers are facing increased competition from cheaper
  Chinese electric cars.

  VW reported a 14% drop in net profit in the first half of the year and
  was forced to terminate a decades-old job security agreement with
  unions in Germany.

How did the German government react?

  German government spokesman Wolfgang Büchner said that Berlin was aware
  of VW's challenges and had been in close communication with the company
  and worker representatives.

  "The chancellor's position on this is clear, however, namely that
  possible wrong management decisions from the past must not be to the
  detriment of employees. The aim now is to maintain and secure jobs,"
  the spokesperson told a regular briefing.

  It was not immediately clear if Büchner was referring to the so-called
  dieselgate scandal-turned-criminal case, in which former VW CEO Martin
  Winterkorn has been accused of perjury, market manipulation and
  commercial fraud.

  VW operates a total of 10 plants in Germany, with six situated in Lower
  Saxony, three in the eastern state of Saxony and one in Hesse in the
  west.

  Volkswagen has never closed a plant in Germany, and has not closed a
  plant anywhere in the world in more than three decades.

  kb/wd (Reuters, dpa AFP)

  While you're here: Every Tuesday, DW editors round up what is happening
  in German politics and society. You can sign up here for the weekly
  email newsletter Berlin Briefing.

References

  1. https://www.dw.com/en/volkswagen-vw/t-17448835
  2. https://www.dw.com/en/germany/t-17871182
  3. https://www.dw.com/en/germany-volkswagen-considering-plant-closures-and-job-cuts/a-70114172
  4. https://videojs.com/html5-video-support/
  5. https://www.dw.com/en/volkswagen-crisis-will-the-german-city-of-wolfsburg-survive-the-car-giants-crisis-v1/a-70497428
  6. https://videojs.com/html5-video-support/
  7. https://www.dw.com/en/volkswagens-crisis-how-can-europes-car-industry-survive/a-70231806

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