wikedgolf
10-28-2004, 10:25 AM
Thousands at Volkswagen Walk off Job
Volkswagen AG and its union traded threats Wednesday ahead of
renewed wage talks, with several thousand workers staging short work
stoppages and the company's personnel chief warning of dramatic job
cuts if the automaker doesn't get cost savings.
Workers walked off the job for three hours at the company's
headquarters in Wolfsburg and at a plant in the western city of Kassel
to underline wage demands in talks to resume Thursday. Union
representatives said more than 30,000 took part.
Union leaders have said they will step up the short warning strikes if
a deal isn't reached by the end of this month.
Meanwhile, Volkswagen's head of personnel Peter Hartz said that if the
company doesn't get the savings it wants it will have to cut back jobs
in high-wage Germany.
"If we do not implement our cost concept, our employment level in
Germany will shrink dramatically," Hartz was quoted as saying by the
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Wednesday.
"That would be a bitter thing," he said. "Because we want to secure our
competitiveness - and therefore Volkswagen jobs - in the wage
negotiations."
Volkswagen says it needs to cut costs 30 percent by 2011. It has
offered to guarantee the jobs of its 176,400 workers in Germany in
return for a two-year wage freeze. The union is demanding a 2.2 percent
pay raise in the first year, and a 2.7 percent raise in the second year
- budging from a previous demand for 4 percent annual raises.
Hartz's threat follows an announcement Oct. 14 by competitor General
Motors Corp. that it will drop up to 12,000 jobs in Europe, about a
fifth of its work force, and that most of those cuts will come at its
German subsidiary, Adam Opel AG.
Big German companies, under pressure from a sluggish economy at home
and increasing competition from lower-cost foreign competitors, have
been increasingly pushing employees for savings in the form of longer
hours and fewer breaks and perks.
Volkswagen wasn't thinking about closing plants, Hartz said. "Factory
closings are not a topic with us," he said.
Hartz said the company wanted to guarantee 3,000 jobs at its Wolfsburg
base making a new sport utility vehicle based on the compact Golf
platform. "But that will require cost concessions," he said. "The labor
costs per vehicle today in Wolfsburg are 1,800 euros above those of the
competition." At current rates, 1,800 euros is worth about $2,300.
Talks covering 103,000 workers at six German plants resume Thursday in
Hanover.
<i>Copyright 2004 Associated Press. </i>
Volkswagen AG and its union traded threats Wednesday ahead of
renewed wage talks, with several thousand workers staging short work
stoppages and the company's personnel chief warning of dramatic job
cuts if the automaker doesn't get cost savings.
Workers walked off the job for three hours at the company's
headquarters in Wolfsburg and at a plant in the western city of Kassel
to underline wage demands in talks to resume Thursday. Union
representatives said more than 30,000 took part.
Union leaders have said they will step up the short warning strikes if
a deal isn't reached by the end of this month.
Meanwhile, Volkswagen's head of personnel Peter Hartz said that if the
company doesn't get the savings it wants it will have to cut back jobs
in high-wage Germany.
"If we do not implement our cost concept, our employment level in
Germany will shrink dramatically," Hartz was quoted as saying by the
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Wednesday.
"That would be a bitter thing," he said. "Because we want to secure our
competitiveness - and therefore Volkswagen jobs - in the wage
negotiations."
Volkswagen says it needs to cut costs 30 percent by 2011. It has
offered to guarantee the jobs of its 176,400 workers in Germany in
return for a two-year wage freeze. The union is demanding a 2.2 percent
pay raise in the first year, and a 2.7 percent raise in the second year
- budging from a previous demand for 4 percent annual raises.
Hartz's threat follows an announcement Oct. 14 by competitor General
Motors Corp. that it will drop up to 12,000 jobs in Europe, about a
fifth of its work force, and that most of those cuts will come at its
German subsidiary, Adam Opel AG.
Big German companies, under pressure from a sluggish economy at home
and increasing competition from lower-cost foreign competitors, have
been increasingly pushing employees for savings in the form of longer
hours and fewer breaks and perks.
Volkswagen wasn't thinking about closing plants, Hartz said. "Factory
closings are not a topic with us," he said.
Hartz said the company wanted to guarantee 3,000 jobs at its Wolfsburg
base making a new sport utility vehicle based on the compact Golf
platform. "But that will require cost concessions," he said. "The labor
costs per vehicle today in Wolfsburg are 1,800 euros above those of the
competition." At current rates, 1,800 euros is worth about $2,300.
Talks covering 103,000 workers at six German plants resume Thursday in
Hanover.
<i>Copyright 2004 Associated Press. </i>