Volkswagen and IG Metall are meeting for the first time today for negotiations. After the car manufacturer canceled the job security, a tough round of collective bargaining is imminent. Strikes are threatening from December.
This round of collective bargaining is tough: Given the new savings plans at Volkswagen, the negotiations between the car manufacturer and IG Metall are about much more than usual. Both sides will meet in Hanover in the morning. The positions are far apart. While VW is pushing for savings in personnel costs, IG Metall wants to prevent cuts.
The collective bargaining round, which was actually only planned for the end of October, was brought forward after the car company tightened its austerity measures at the beginning of the month. Instead of just the wages, the employment security that VW terminated should also be negotiated.
Initially only the approximately 120,000 employees in the six large West German plants that are covered by the VW company tariff are affected. VW Sachsen has its own regulations. VW also canceled job security there yesterday.
What Volkswagen wants
“We have to restructure our company together. The situation is serious,” explained VW negotiator Arne Meiswinkel, HR director of the core Volkswagen brand, before the start of the talks. “The first round of negotiations will be about getting a common picture of the initial situation.”
At the beginning of the month, the car company tightened its austerity measures for its core brand and terminated the employment security that has been in place for 30 years. According to Manager Magazin, up to 30,000 jobs could be lost in the medium term. The closure of entire plants is no longer ruled out. According to CFO Arno Antlitz, the group is missing sales for around two plants. VW also wants to reduce the pay of temporary workers and take on fewer trainees.
CEO Oliver Blume pushed for concessions from IG Metall: “I expect significant movement there to make progress on the cost side,” he said on ZDF on Monday. “We will fight for every job here in Germany, that is very clear. But the basis for this is that we will significantly reduce costs across all areas.” The aim is to reach an agreement by the end of the year.
What IG Metall demands
“We cannot talk about factory closures and mass layoffs,” said Lower Saxony’s IG Metall district manager Thorsten Gröger before the negotiations. Works council boss Daniela Cavallo, who sits at the negotiating table for IG Metall, had previously described both as clear red lines.
IG Metall asked management to first put concrete savings plans on the table so that negotiations could begin. So far, apart from the termination of several collective agreements, there are no details about possible layoffs and factory closures. In doing so, VW was pouring “additional fuel on the fire,” criticized Gröger. “We expect answers today.”
In addition, there should be an end to the negative scenario. Instead, what is needed is “a viable future concept for all locations” that does not involve factory closures or mass layoffs.
When it comes to wages, IG Metall is demanding seven percent more wages for the industry and also for VW. Strikes would also be possible from December. Then VW's peace obligation ends. “We are only at the beginning of a dispute with the company that has come to nothing,” said Gröger. If necessary, tens of thousands of VW employees would stand in front of the factory gates and on the streets from December 1st.
Weil demands solution on negotiating table
If no agreement is reached, the job guarantee would also eliminate the concessions made by the workforce that were agreed upon 30 years ago, such as the waiver of vacation and Christmas bonuses. IG Metall warned that it would then even become more expensive for VW. VW, however, threatened that in this case “compulsory dismissals cannot be ruled out.” This would be possible from July 2025.
Before the start of the talks, Lower Saxony's Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) called for a solution to be found at the negotiating table. “Volkswagen needs discussions, Volkswagen needs clever concepts, but Volkswagen doesn’t need any more public exchanges,” said Weil, who sits on the VW supervisory board for the state. Lower Saxony holds a good 20 percent of the shares and has the right to veto important decisions.
