The CEO of Volkswagen, Oliver Blume, takes a step towards the workers after days of tension with the unions, who criticized announcements and information released first to the media rather than to employees. According to the Ig Metall union, Blume will meet with employees at the main plants involved in the restructuring plan in the coming weeks. In particular, on Tuesday, August 25, he will be in Wolfsburg from 9:30, while the following day he is expected in Zwickau and Emden. The visit to Hannover, indicated among the sites at risk of closure, will not take place in person: internal sources explain that the choice is related to organizational reasons.
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Blume will meet the employees
Last Monday, for the first time, Blume reportedly provided the German media with the number of planned cuts, at least 50,000, to be added to those already agreed with the social partners until 2030. At the same time, the manager spoke of “smarter solutions” compared to plant closures, but left many questions open about what these alternatives concretely mean. The rumors that La Stampa also cites indicate the possibility of cuts up to 140,000 jobs, with a scenario that could “limit them” to about 100,000. Meanwhile, the company aims to drastically downsize the offering as well: there is talk of halving the range of models in production and reducing the overall complexity of the range by 75%.
Volkswagen fears repercussions
Within this restructuring framework, Volkswagen also aims to recover about 20% of group overhead costs. The figures tell a situation that pushes to action: in the first six months, global deliveries fell by 6% to 4.13 million and production capacity decreased from the pre-pandemic 12 million to 9 million annually. For the unions, however, the issue is not only about numbers: at the upcoming meetings, workers demand clarity about the plants and the industrial future of the sites. Meanwhile, hypotheses about possible conversions and reconversions are already emerging, as in the case of Osnabrück, with a possible shift towards defense-related activities. The effect of the restructuring also worries the supply chain, with Italian suppliers exposed to the German market and a significant industrial fabric fearing repercussions on thousands of companies and jobs.
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