Enlarge image
No more politeness:
"Herbert Diess should end his personal profiling via the media and answer the questions of the workforce unsettled by short-time work as a result of the chip crisis on November 4th" (message from
Daniela Cavallo
, head of the VW works council)
Photo: Swen Pförtner / dpa
Volkswagen boss
Herbert Diess
(62) had actually hoped that
negotiations with the employee representatives would be more relaxed
with the new works council
chairman
Daniela Cavallo
(46), who
had replaced
long-time works council
chairman Bernd Osterloh
(65)
in May
. But since his plans for further downsizing became known, the new manager has been on attack.
"Herbert Diess prefers investors on Wall Street to its own workforce," wrote Cavallo in a statement on Tuesday evening. This behavior is unprecedented in the history of the group and shows that Diess has neither empathy nor feeling for the situation of the workforce even in this crisis. "This provocation shows us that Mr. Diess still has no interest in constructive cooperation." The head of the company should end his personal profiling via the media and "kindly" answer the questions of the workforce unsettled by short-time work as a result of the chip crisis on November 4th. In his place, CFO
Arno Antlitz
(51)
should
travel to the USA.
Cavallo, in its announcement, refers to Diess' decision not to attend the corporate meeting scheduled for November 4th.
The VW boss justified this with scheduling reasons that a roadshow in front of investors and analysts in the USA was planned for the day.
The visit has been scheduled for a long time and cannot be canceled at short notice.
Compromise: a new factory for Wolfsburg
The background to the dispute is the low utilization of the VW main plant in Wolfsburg.
There could be as little production here in 2021 as it was last at the end of the 1950s.
The employee representatives are therefore calling for an additional electric model in addition to the "Trinity" project, which is only to be implemented from 2026 in order to increase production at the main plant.
VW boss Diess, on the other hand, is relying on job cuts and wants to cut 30,000 of the almost 120,000 jobs at the VW brand in Germany.
Precarious: As manager magazin found out, Diess tried to organize the job cuts past the employee representatives.
Cavallo (read a portrait of the new head of the works council here) met with little understanding.
In the meantime, however, a compromise has emerged between the parties: A new factory could be built in Wolfsburg - for the Tesla fighter.
mg / dpa-afx, Reuters