Volkswagen faces mounting pressure over job cuts

Volkswagen employees and management are set to confront each other as the automaker begins a series of extraordinary meetings at its major German sites amid growing tensions over a far-reaching cost-cutting drive.

The meetings were organized by the company’s works council, which is demanding greater clarity from management over proposed measures that could result in up to 50,000 job cuts and threaten the future of four German plants, in addition to existing cost-reduction programs, dpa reports.

Volkswagen Chief Executive Oliver Blume has warned that measures implemented so far are insufficient to restore the competitiveness of Europe’s largest automaker.

“We are oversized. That often makes us too slow and too complicated,” Blume said, adding that the situation at Volkswagen, which is grappling with weak sales and declining margins in the strategically important Chinese market, was “more than critical.”

Blume said Volkswagen had already reached agreements with around 37,000 staff to cut jobs, primarily through early retirement deals.

The planned meetings come after Volkswagen’s supervisory board, which includes employee representatives, rejected the company’s latest cost-cutting proposals in July, underscoring the difficulties facing management and workers as they seek an agreement.

Nine extraordinary meetings have been scheduled across Volkswagen’s main German sites over the coming days. The first will take place at the company’s headquarters in Wolfsburg, with subsequent meetings aimed at giving employees and management an opportunity to discuss the restructuring plans and determine a path forward.

By Vafa Guliyeva