VW boss Herbert Diess sounds the alarm: If the ongoing conversion towards e-mobility does not succeed, 30,000 jobs would be on the brink.
Wolfsburg - The
Handelsblatt
caused a considerable stir on Wednesday with a report on the latest Supervisory Board meeting at Volkswagen *.
According to the report, CEO Herbert Diess * is said to have mentioned a scenario at the meeting of the group inspectors a good three weeks ago, according to which a total of 30,000 jobs could be lost at the core brand VW.
This caused outrage in the supervisory board, reports the business newspaper.
The supervisors felt taken by surprise and asked Diess to reconsider his scenario for restructuring the company, writes the
Handelsblatt
, which is traditionally very well informed at VW
.
Insider: Exaggerated presentation
From Wolfsburg, however, it is said that the representation is "completely exaggerated".
In fact, in the session in question, Diess drew "a half-sentence of a worst-case scenario" in the event that the conversion towards e-mobility fails and the central group project Trinity also becomes a flop, said one person familiar with the processes Person on Wednesday opposite
Merkur.de
.
Trinity stands for the future vehicle architecture with which Volkswagen wants to simplify production considerably.
Instead of welding the body together from steel and aluminum sheets in several work steps, the car body will in future be cast in one work step.
VW is thus following the example of Tesla.
The global e-car pioneer wants to manufacture its cars accordingly in its new Gigafactory in Grünheide near Berlin.
In addition, with Trinity the number of variants is to be greatly reduced.
The first vehicles on the new platform are expected to roll off the assembly line in 2026.
At VW it is said that with his warning of a possible loss of 30,000 jobs, Diess was "referring to the biggest bugbear at VW".
At the beginning of the 1990s, the Wolfsburg-based company had already cut 30,000 jobs.
The trigger was a massive drop in sales.
VW: Traumatic experience
In order to prevent the deforestation, after some tough discussions, the group reached an agreement with IG-Metall in November 1993 on the introduction of the four-day week and the reduction of the weekly working time from 36 to 28.8 hours.
In return, salaries fell by ten percent.
The discussion about the mass deforestation is considered a traumatic experience in Wolfsburg to this day.
Diess has now "consciously" taken up this specter again in the supervisory board meeting.
One must “set the course now to prevent a similar crisis”, Diess warned the inspectors at the meeting on September 24th, a person familiar with the processes told
Merkur.de
.
How unlikely such a deforestation is, a look at the lack of reaction of the VW works council and IG Metall shows.
To date, the employee representatives have not commented on the alleged horror scenario.
"If that were really in the room, the works council and IG Metall would be on the barricades long ago - and right," says Wolfsburg.
* Merkur.de is part of IPPEN.MEDIA.
