FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Volkswagen gave IG Metall notice on Tuesday it was scrapping a range of labour agreements including a guarantee of jobs until 2029 at six German plants, the union said.
Europe’s top carmaker is cancelling the decades-old employment guarantees as part of cost-cutting drive that has triggered a showdown with workers as Volkswagen struggles to compete against cheaper Asian rivals.
“These cancellations arrived seconds ago,” IG Metall said in an emailed statement.
Volkswagen’s move follows a threat that it could shut plants on German soil for the first time in its 87-year history, which sent shockwaves through the global autos sector and prompted high-level German government concern.
The head of the company’s works council has vowed fierce resistance against lay-offs and factory closures, blaming management for Volkswagen’s ills.
IG Metall had previously said it could consider moving to a four-day week as an alternative to closures – replicating an earlier cost-cutting drive in the 1990s.
Negotiations were due to start in mid- to late October, with strikes possible from the end of November.
Volkswagen’s troubles come at a time of economic uncertainty, with weak growth, higher energy prices and questions over trade ties with the lucrative Chinese market testing Germany’s model for consensual industrial relations.
(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee, Writing by Matthias Williams; Editing by Miranda Murray and Alexander Smith)
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