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 stated Volkswagen and the remainder of Germany’s automobile trade are going through “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 provide updates on the corporate’s plans.
Blume stated within the interview that no choice had been taken on plant closures however reiterated the corporate’s place that for vegetation in “Emden, Hannover, Zwickau and Neckarsulm we can’t presently see any approach of them remaining worthwhile within the 2030s”.
He stated that the corporate additionally needed to cope with over-production of 500,000 autos per yr in Europe.
Closing factories would at all times be “the final and costliest resolution”, Blume stated.
He added that at websites the place automobile manufacturing could cease, Volkswagen was exploring different “industrial options”, pointing to superior talks with firms from the defence trade over utilizing its manufacturing facility in Osnabrueck.
In July, Blume introduced saving plans to Volkswagen’s supervisory board however no choice was taken.
German media reported on the time that the Decrease Saxony state authorities — which is a significant shareholder within the Volkswagen Group and holds 20 % 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 large.
“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 facility closures.
Volkswagen’s “staff have already to just accept hefty and painful cuts and now are getting one other slap within the face,” Christiane Benner informed the Wirtschaftswoche weekly.
