FURIOUS VW WORKERS BOO CARMAKER’S MANAGEMENT – Vow to strike at all German plants
Thousands of angry Volkswagen (VW) workers went on a four-hour-long warning strikes across Germany and gathered at the carmaker’s Wolfsburg headquarters, demanding plans for wage cuts and plant closures be scrapped.
In speeches by works council and IG Metall union representatives, cheering workers were told that if the company’s management didn’t make a move, the new year would see “an escalation like never before.”
Thousands chanted “across the nation, we are ready to go on strike.”
Volkswagen is in a bitter dispute aimed at countering high costs in Germany and massively cheaper Asian rivals entering Europe.
Both sides went into a fourth round of negotiations on Monday following the rally outside the plant.
Over the weekend, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told the Funke Media Group Factory shutdowns would be a wrong move by Volkswagen.
The northern German state of Lower Saxony is Volkswagen’s second-largest shareholder, and its state premier, like Scholz, has urged the group to avoid site closures.
