Volkswagen’s CEO warns company’s situation ‘more than critical’
Volkswagen’s CEO warned Sunday the corporate was in a “greater than essential” state forward of conferences with the automobile large’s workers the place he’ll defend the corporate’s financial savings plans.
In an interview posted on the corporate’s intranet and despatched to AFP, Oliver Blume mentioned Volkswagen and the remainder of Germany’s automobile business are going through “the most important upheaval of their historical past” from international headwinds and Chinese language competitors.
The carmaker is weighing up enormous job cuts and in coming days Blume will meet with workers at Volkswagen’s HQ in Wolfsburg and websites in Zwickau and Emden to present updates on the corporate’s plans.
Blume mentioned within the interview that no resolution had been taken on plant closures however reiterated the corporate’s place that for vegetation in “Emden, Hannover, Zwickau and Neckarsulm we can not at the moment see any method of them remaining worthwhile within the 2030s”.
He mentioned that the corporate additionally needed to cope with over-production of 500,000 autos per 12 months in Europe.
Closing factories would all the time be “the final and most costly answer”, Blume mentioned.
He added that at websites the place automobile manufacturing might cease, Volkswagen was exploring different “industrial options”, pointing to superior talks with corporations from the defence business over utilizing its manufacturing facility in Osnabrueck.
In July, Blume introduced saving plans to Volkswagen’s supervisory board however no resolution was taken.
German media reported on the time that the Decrease Saxony state authorities — which is a serious shareholder within the Volkswagen Group and holds 20 p.c of the voting rights — refused to log off on the plans.
The group has already ordered 50,000 job cuts and Blume mentioned that agreements have already been reached with 37,000 workers.
Blume appealed to workers to drag collectively for the sake of the auto large.
“We are going to solely achieve success if everybody within the firm helps this plan,” he mentioned.
The pinnacle of the IG Metall union on Friday sharply criticised administration and promised to withstand manufacturing facility closures.
Volkswagen’s “employees have already to simply accept hefty and painful cuts and now are getting one other slap within the face,” Christiane Benner instructed the Wirtschaftswoche weekly.
