VW CEO to face disgruntled workers in push for additional cuts

Volkswagen AG Chief Executive Officer Oliver Blume will seek to justify his plans to cut as many as 50 000 additional jobs and possibly shutter four German plants when he holds three meetings with workers next month.

Labour officials at Europe’s biggest carmaker have sharply criticised Blume after details of the restructuring proposals, which could double the total number of job reductions to 100 000, were leaked in the media ahead of this month’s supervisory board meeting.

The board rejected the plan and VW’s influential works council said there had been “a massive loss of trust” in management. It demanded the CEO respond directly to staff after the summer break.

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Blume is scheduled to speak at the company’s headquarters in Wolfsburg on August 25, and at Zwickau and Emden — two plants at risk of being shut down — the following day.

Other board members, including VW brand chief Thomas Schäfer, will speak at six other sites. They’re under no obligation to appear but want to set out their thinking directly to employees, the works council said Friday in a statement.

VW has been struggling to bring down carmaking costs in Germany, which are estimated to be about two-thirds higher than in other locations such as Portugal and Spain.

The showdown pits Blume, known for his close ties to VW’s billionaire Porsche-Piech clan, against the company’s 300 000-strong German workforce, its powerful labour representatives and the government of its home state of Lower Saxony.

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