Over the weekend, the employees at Volkswagen's German factories and their union IG Metall announced a strike. It started on Monday and now 9 factories have closed down.
On Monday morning, employees at nine of Volkswagen's factories in Germany chose to stop work as part of a warning strike.
The strike has meant that production at the factories has been temporarily stopped. The actions are part of a conflict between the trade union IG Metall and Volkswagen, where disagreements over pay and working conditions are quickly escalating.
The factories that are based include, among others, plants in Wolfsburg, Zwickau, Hannover, Emden, Kassel-Baunatal, Braunschweig, Salzgitter, Chemnitz and Dresden.
The first strike began at 9:30 a.m. at the factory in Zwickau and was quickly followed by similar actions at the other factories from 10:00 a.m. According to the union, the strike, which lasts two hours per shifts, repeated on later shifts on the same day.
The background to the conflict is, among other things, Volkswagen's plans to close three factories and carry out mass redundancies.
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At the same time, there is disagreement about the wage level. IG Metall demands wage increases for factory workers, while Volkswagen wants to reduce wages by 10 percent.
– If necessary, this will be the toughest collective bargaining battle Volkswagen has ever seen, says Thorsten Groeger, negotiator for IG Metall.
According to the union, the strike could mean that more than 1,000 cars will not be produced. However, Volkswagen states that the company has taken steps to limit the consequences of the production halt.
The parties meet again on December 9 to resume negotiations. Daniela Cavallo, chairman of Volkswagen's central workers' committee, has emphasized the importance of courage:
– We are ready for both, she said and referred to both the possibility of finding a solution and a further escalation.
At the same time, Volkswagen faces economic challenges. The company has reported a 64 percent drop in profits for the third quarter. Other German car manufacturers, such as BMW and Mercedes, have also experienced significant losses in the same period.
