Yahoo TV

STORY: :: Volkswagen workers protest ahead of talks over a new labor agreement for its German plants

:: Hanover, Germany

::Jana Feuerbach, Volkswagen employee

"Secure projects, a secure workplace. That's what we want - in other words, we want things to carry on and, above all, we want the Executive Board to think about how this will carry on."

:: September 25, 2024

:: Thorsten Groeger, IG Metall's chief negotiator with Volkswagen

"This crisis is not caused by the workforce, but by a series of blatantly wrong decisions and misjudgments by management - even if the current managers are no longer all responsible for the past, the current managers are responsible for ensuring that in the future it will all continue in an orderly manner."

Tensions at the carmaking giant are running high as the specter of plant closures, which would be a first for the company in Germany, has set it on a collision course with the IG Metall union, which has vowed to fight any such moves.

IG Metall must also negotiate new labor deals for the core VW brand's 130,000 workers in Germany after the group earlier this month ended agreements that had safeguarded employment at six of its plants in western Germany since the mid-1990s.

Worker representatives have vowed to wage a bitter resistance against job cuts, blaming top management and the government's faltering support for Volkswagen's ills.

IG Metall has threatened strikes, which are possible from the start of December, and insisted on a 7% pay rise.