Agencies
German automotive giant Volkswagen is bracing for a showdown with trade unions shortly after it said it cannot rule out shutting factories in its home country for the first time in its nearly 90-year history.
Volkswagen’s management is expected to lay out its plans before about 18,000 workers at a town hall meeting in Wolfsburg on Wednesday morning, amid speculation that the carmaker could push to close sites in Osnabrueck in Lower Saxony and Dresden in Saxony.
In a move that underlines the challenges facing Europe’s top legacy carmakers, Volkswagen warned on Monday that it would no longer be able to rule out plant closures in Germany.
The Wolfsburg-headquartered company also said it felt compelled to bring an end to its employment protection agreement — a job security program that has been in place since 1994 — in order to secure “urgently needed structural adjustments for greater competitiveness in the short term.” Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume said in a written statement on Monday that the carmaker would need to “act decisively” in order to future-proof the company.
“The European automotive industry is in a very demanding and serious situation,” Blume said.
