{"id":134951,"date":"2024-10-29T07:45:48","date_gmt":"2024-10-29T05:45:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/news\/volkswagen-to-shut-three-factories-axe-jobs-and-cut-pay-by-10-says-union\/"},"modified":"2024-10-29T07:45:48","modified_gmt":"2024-10-29T05:45:48","slug":"volkswagen-to-shut-three-factories-axe-jobs-and-cut-pay-by-10-says-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/news\/volkswagen-to-shut-three-factories-axe-jobs-and-cut-pay-by-10-says-union\/","title":{"rendered":"Volkswagen to shut three factories, axe jobs and cut pay by 10%, says union"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mp_wrapper\">\n  <div class=\"mepr-unauthorized-message\">\n    <p>You are unauthorized to view this page.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n  <div class=\"mepr-login-form-wrap\">\n            \n<div class=\"mp_wrapper mp_login_form\">\n                  <!-- mp-login-form-start -->     <form name=\"mepr_loginform\" id=\"mepr_loginform\" class=\"mepr-form\" action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/\" method=\"post\" data-trp-original-action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/\">\n            <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_username\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n                              <label for=\"user_login\">Username<\/label>\n        <\/div>\n        <input type=\"text\" name=\"log\" id=\"user_login\" value=\"\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_password\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n          <label for=\"user_pass\">Password<\/label>\n          <div class=\"mp-hide-pw\">\n            <input type=\"password\" name=\"pwd\" id=\"user_pass\" value=\"\" \/>\n            <button type=\"button\" class=\"button mp-hide-pw hide-if-no-js\" data-toggle=\"0\" aria-label=\"Show password\">\n              <span class=\"dashicons dashicons-visibility\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span>\n            <\/button>\n          <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n            <div>\n        <label><input name=\"rememberme\" type=\"checkbox\" id=\"rememberme\" value=\"forever\" \/> Remember Me<\/label>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n      <div class=\"submit\">\n        <input type=\"submit\" name=\"wp-submit\" id=\"wp-submit\" class=\"button-primary mepr-share-button\" value=\"Log In\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"redirect_to\" value=\"\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134951\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_process_login_form\" value=\"true\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_is_login_page\" value=\"false\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n    <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"trp-form-language\" value=\"en\"\/><\/form>\n    <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n    <div class=\"mepr-login-actions\">\n        <a\n          href=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/?action=forgot_password\"\n          title=\"Click here to reset your password\"\n        >\n          Forgot Password        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n\n      \n    <!-- mp-login-form-end --> \n  <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"smart_content_wrapper\">\nThe German carmaker Volkswagen is planning to shut at least three factories in its home country, lay off thousands of workers and cut pay by 10%, according to the company\u2019s union. The deeper-than-expected cuts come as the company faces weak sales and slow expansion in the electric vehicle (EV) sector amid tough competition from Chinese manufacturers. \u201cThe board wants to close at least three factories in Germany,\u201d the works council chief, Daniela Cavallo, told employees at VW\u2019s headquarters in Wolfsburg on Monday. Its remaining manufacturing sites will reduce capacity, she said, citing information provided by management.<\/p>\n<p>As Europe\u2019s top economy suffers a crisis in manufacturing and fears of mass unemployment, VW is aiming for a fundamental restructuring to cut costs. It had initially warned last month that it had the equivalent of two factories of extra capacity in Germany. Redundancies are expected across the workforce, amounting to tens of thousands of jobs and whole divisions closed or sent overseas. Real-terms pay cuts could amount to as much as 18% after a two-year pay freeze, the works council said. \u201cAll German VW plants are affected by these plans,\u201d Cavallo said. \u201cNone is safe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The works council said the factory in the northern city of Osnabr\u00fcck, in Lower Saxony, which recently lost a major contract with Porsche, VW\u2019s subsidiary, was threatened with closure. However, that could prove politically contentious as Lower Saxony\u2019s government is Volkswagen\u2019s second-largest shareholder, with 20% of voting rights. The state\u2019s leader, Stephan Weil, last month said plant closures should not be under consideration. Cavallo also raised the prospect of industrial action if VW did not back down. She said the company was \u201cplaying with the massive risk that everything will soon escalate here\u201d and workers will \u201cdo what a workforce has to do when it fears for its existence\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Car companies are complaining of falling demand in many key markets after interest rates rose in recent years after the historic lows of more than a decade that followed the global financial crisis. Germany\u2019s traditional manufacturers, including BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche, have reported falling profits as Chinese sales in particular struggle.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, incumbent carmakers such as Volkswagen are having to come up with major investments needed to switch production from petrol and diesel to battery electric, while facing Chinese rivals who enjoy lower costs. Some factories had already been switched over, but slowing growth in demand for EVs has made companies less keen to make the job-saving investments.<\/p>\n<p>Volkswagen employs more than 120,000 people in Germany, about half of those in Wolfsburg. The company, which operates 10 sites in Germany under the VW brand, sent shock waves through the country in September with an announcement that it was considering the closure of factories in Germany for the first time in its history. To return to competitiveness, it said it would abolish its 30-year-old employment protection agreement as part of an attempt to save about \u20ac10bn.<\/p>\n<p>Volkswagen said in a statement on Monday that its management had been in talks with labour representatives since the middle of 2023 about how to proceed, and had made clear over the summer that the \u201cworsening economic situation required a fundamental restructuring\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>It said management would put forward \u201cconcrete proposals to lower labour costs\u201d at upcoming salary negotiations. Gunnar Kilian, the head of human resources on the management board, said: \u201cThe fact is, the situation is serious and the responsibility of the negotiating partners is enormous.\u201d He confirmed unspecified factory closures and painted a dire picture of the company\u2019s condition.<\/p>\n<p>The company said the automobile market in Europe, of which its share amounts to about a quarter, had shrunk by 2 million vehicles since 2020 while costs for energy, personnel and raw materials had grown. The sector was \u201cstagnating and will not recover in the foreseeable future\u201d, it said. Volkswagen Passenger Cars\u2019 chief executive, Thomas Sch\u00e4fer, said the company\u2019s German factories had significantly higher labour costs than the industry standard.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/business\/2024\/oct\/28\/volkswagen-shut-three-factories-cut-thousands-jobs-union\">The Guardian<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/csr-news-en\/volkswagen-to-shut-three-factories-axe-jobs-and-cut-pay-by-10-says-union\/\">Volkswagen to shut three factories, axe jobs and cut pay by 10%, says union<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\">Vastuullisuusuutiset.fi<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[555,4742,16690,16691],"class_list":["post-134951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-csr-news-en","tag-shut","tag-three-factories","tag-vw"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134951\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}