UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

VW workers going on strike in Germany, not good news at all:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsaIubg ... nel=DWNews

I think that with the prospect of factory closures and wage cuts, strike action by VW employees doesn’t really come as a big surprise; it was more case case of when rather than if they’d take some form of action.

The video mentions the Germans being late to the EV market. Additionally, IMHO VW’s current EV range is somewhat lacklustre compared to some of its competitors, so probably lacks appeal to customers which will be reflected in poor sales and / or having to offer large discounts. That’s not a financially viable situation in the longer term, so VW really did need to focus on their cost base and make some difficult decisions. They also don’t currently have a small affordable EV, so nothing to tempt current Polo customers.

I do hope VW survive their current problems - I think it’s inevitable it won’t be the same VW that we know today.

I also think the problem is far wider than just VW, it impacts all EU manufacturers, VW just got hit hard first. With "cheap" EV's coming in from the east discounted heavily by the State how can the EU compete on a level playing field.

VW: We have problems and we will have to do something about it. Pay cut and maybe close a plant or two.
Unions: We don't care if company is not profitable.
...
There was no way this could end in any reasonable way.

One way or another they need to make some difficult decissions and probably streamline their model range.

This kind of reminds me of the Royal Mail strikes - Royal Mail is losing money and wants to cut jobs/pay, staff don’t agree so go on strike. Royal Mail loses even more money due to the strikes so needs to make more cuts. VW bosses won’t want to reduce bonuses, just as staff won’t want to reduce pay/lose their jobs. Going on strike delays vehicle production and costs the company more money when it needs to save money = more jobs lost/even bigger pay cuts.

This won’t end well, the bosses can’t and won’t give in and neither will the workers, which means VW loses even more money.

In the business section of the BBC News website today;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cje9kv3q94po

Key points from the article;

• Deal reached with unions to avoid immediate German plant closures and the previously reported 10k compulsory redundancies.

• 35,000 job cuts in a ‘socially responsible manner’ (e.g. to be found by other means such as early retirement) by 2030.

• Deal will see reduction in capacity across manufacturing plants (could this mean longer lead times for those ordering a new car? that’s built in one of VW’s German plants?).

• Some production likely to be moved from Germany to Mexico.

• Previously agreed 5% wage increase to be suspended in 2025 and 2026.

• Number of apprenticeships offered each year to be cut from 1,400 to 600.