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Works council boss Cavallo (archive picture): "Wolfsburg wants change!"
Photo: Susanne Huebner / imago images / Susanne H¸bner
The setting is perfect for the big showdown.
Hall 11 of the Wolfsburg main plant is reminiscent of a cathedral with its high ceiling and concrete pillars.
In normal times, there is room for around 20,000 employees, on Thursday there are only a few thousand due to the corona.
A total of 50,000 people followed the spectacle via live stream.
You could lean back and relax like in the cinema and watch the continuation of the entertaining exchange of blows at Netflix level that VW boss Herbert Diess and works council boss Daniela Cavallo have been offering you for weeks.
If only the situation wasn't so serious.
Corona pandemic and computer chip shortages have caused car production to plummet to its lowest level since the late 1950s.
Employee leader Cavallo complains about more than 50 closing days and dozens of canceled shifts.
Instead of the originally targeted one million vehicles, Volkswagen will probably produce a maximum of 400,000 cars in its world's largest factory this year.
The competition is already mocking that Wolfsburg is running empty.
An expulsion of Diess is no longer excluded
First of all, Lower Saxony's Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) takes the floor.
The country, which holds 20 percent of the VW group, is firmly on the side of the employees.
According to the participants, there will be no shaking at the Wolfsburg site, the father of the country says.
Weil's clear message is also a slap for corporate boss Diess.
A few weeks ago he let it be known internally that up to 30,000 jobs were at risk at VW.
A conflict between corporate management, the country and employees has been smoldering for weeks.
In the meantime, a mediation committee of the supervisory board has been called in to find a compromise.
A kicking out of the CEO, who has already been debated several times, appears unlikely.
But it is no longer excluded.
How tense the mood is is shown by the reaction of the employees when Cavallo, head of the works council, comes to the microphone. Many of them jump up and are reported to applaud about a minute before she even says the first word. Your subsequent speech then turns into a general settlement with VW boss Diess. "As you have appeared publicly in the last few months, I really wonder whether you yourself are actually aware of this situation here at our location and how it is perceived by the workforce," says Cavallo according to the manuscript that was sent in advance. Her colleagues, says Cavallo, are "afraid for their work, for their families, for their existence." Diess, on the other hand, "keeps sprinkling salt into the wound, and that without need."
A lot is at stake for the head of the works council.
It is her first open test of strength with the corporate management since she took over the position in April from her powerful predecessor Bernd Osterloh.
For Cavallo, it's about the future of the Wolfsburg main plant, but also about one's own position: Works council elections are due next year.
She cannot afford to give in to the bustling corporate boss.
But Diess is also under great pressure.
His contract was extended early in July until autumn 2025.
He is receiving industry-wide recognition for his electric offensive.
But the acute shortage of computer chips, which is now hampering production, caught his team off guard.
Rivals like BMW or Tesla are getting through the crisis much better.
The shortage of semiconductors, says Cavallo, is "an indictment of a global corporation, and it is your responsibility, dear corporate executives." Without the acute shortage of parts, according to the head of the works council, VW could actually "produce for months", enough orders would be available. "So the truth is: it is not the plant or the employees that are inefficient," says Cavallo, "we simply lack the parts with which we can build the cars." Diess' numbers games about a possible downsizing are "completely absurd". There is not one person on board too many in Wolfsburg, "you cannot negotiate one position with us".
In addition to operational problems, she also accuses Diess of deficiencies in dealing with the workforce.
He never misses an opportunity to show himself to one of the biggest VW competitions - Tesla boss Elon Musk.
"The fascination that you evidently feel towards Mr. Musk and the enthusiasm that you put into maintaining contact with him, that is what we employees would also like to see for our current major challenges in the Group."
This promises »Vision 2030« for Wolfsburg
The audience eagerly awaited the reaction of the VW boss. After all the conflicts of the past few weeks, it turns out to be surprisingly tame. "Ms. Cavallo and I agree," says Diess at the beginning of the speech, "we have to talk to each other." He is looking forward to the personal exchange, "only together can we make Volkswagen future-proof". These are unusual words for the otherwise provocative corporate leader. The reactions of the audience are correspondingly cautious, apart from a few boos, according to the participants, there is hardly any protest. When Diess announced that he had canceled his originally planned trip to the USA in order to attend the company meeting, he even received applause.
The VW boss also points out problems in the group. “The lack of chips will be with us next year too,” he says, “the supply will be better, but we won't be able to build every car.” On Tuesday, the Group's management board decided to want to achieve the best possible utilization of the plants.
At the same time, he justifies his constant focus on Tesla. The Californian rival will only need ten hours per car in its new large factory in Grünheide, while Volkswagen's Zwickau e-car location currently needs 30 hours for production. "You can only win if you understand and keep an eye on the competition," says Diess. "Tesla is the benchmark today, and other strong start-ups from China are also pushing into the market." Volkswagen should not let its location, its corporate headquarters, "be destroyed by Tesla in Grünheide."
Diess promises to develop a new target image for Wolfsburg in 2030 by the next VW supervisory board meeting on December 9, "with the most modern factory in the world".
Until then, the dispute between him, the employee representatives and the country must be settled.
Has he averted the threat of being thrown out again?
From the camp of the Diess critics it is said that there was no vote of no confidence and no motion to dismiss the company boss - unlike the media reported on Wednesday.
However, the mood moves between "destroyed trust and irreparably destroyed trust".
The mediation committee headed by supervisory board chairman Hans Dieter Pötsch still has a lot to do.
