Volkswagen’s CEO warns company’s situation ‘more than critical’
Volkswagen’s CEO warned Sunday the corporate was in a “greater than crucial” state forward of conferences with the automotive big’s employees 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 stated Volkswagen and the remainder of Germany’s automotive business are dealing with “the largest upheaval of their historical past” from world headwinds and Chinese language competitors.
The carmaker is weighing up big job cuts and in coming days Blume will meet with workers at Volkswagen’s HQ in Wolfsburg and websites in Zwickau and Emden to offer updates on the corporate’s plans.
Blume stated within the interview that no determination 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 present see any method of them remaining worthwhile within the 2030s”.
He stated that the corporate additionally needed to take care of over-production of 500,000 automobiles per yr in Europe.
Closing factories would at all times be “the final and most costly resolution”, Blume stated.
He added that at websites the place automotive manufacturing might cease, Volkswagen was exploring different “industrial options”, pointing to superior talks with corporations from the defence business over utilizing its manufacturing unit in Osnabrueck.
In July, Blume offered saving plans to Volkswagen’s supervisory board however no determination 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 out on the plans.
The group has already ordered 50,000 job cuts and Blume stated that agreements have already been reached with 37,000 workers.
Blume appealed to workers to drag collectively for the sake of the auto big.
“We are going to solely achieve success if everybody within the firm helps this plan,” he stated.
The top of the IG Metall union on Friday sharply criticised administration and promised to withstand manufacturing unit closures.
Volkswagen’s “staff have already to simply accept hefty and painful cuts and now are getting one other slap within the face,” Christiane Benner advised the Wirtschaftswoche weekly.
