{"id":540890,"date":"2026-07-09T11:21:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T11:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/540890\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T11:21:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T11:21:10","slug":"vw-faces-protests-in-germany-over-proposed-job-cuts-and-factory-closures-volkswagen-vw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/540890\/","title":{"rendered":"VW faces protests in Germany over proposed job cuts and factory closures | Volkswagen (VW)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Volkswagen\u2019s proposal to slash up to 100,000 jobs and close factories faces a major test on Thursday as they are formally put to its supervisory board, with protests planned at all plants in Germany<\/a>.<\/p>\n

IG Metall, the influential staff union, has organised demonstrations involving shop stewards and union council members at 18 sites at Europe\u2019s biggest carmaker, including its headquarters. It told the chief executive, Oliver Blume, that he cannot \u201cpass the buck for failures of recent years on to the workforce\u201d.<\/p>\n

Christiane Benner, the chair of the union, said: \u201cThis sends a clear signal to the board,\u201d which will be asked to review the wide-reaching plans, leaked to the media last month, for the first time today at VW\u2019s headquarters in Wolfsburg.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s demonstrations<\/a> will target factories producing cars for VW as well as others in the manufacturing group, including the Audi and Porsche plants, along with the truck and bus maker Man between 11.20am and 2pm.<\/p>\n

Blume has drawn up a radical transformation plan<\/a>, with the key sticking points being the possible closure of four \u200bGerman plants \u2013 Hanover, Emden, Zwickau and Audi\u2019s Neckarsulm site \u2013 as well as up to 50,000 in \u200badditional job cuts tied to it, sources have said.<\/p>\n

With more than 650,000 staff across Germany and about 3 million employed directly and indirectly by the country\u2019s car industry, the board meeting is being seen as a major test for the future of the German economy.<\/p>\n

In addition, the company is reviewing \u2060its sprawling structure and may carve out or spin off its core brand division and components technology business \u200bin an attempt to simplify its sprawling structure.<\/p>\n

The presentation by Blume\u2019s team comes after the car trade representative body, the VDA, predicted potential employment collapse<\/a> across the sector in Germany and the wider continent unless \u201cbold decisions\u201d were taken, including the potential sell-off of unviable plants to foreign car companies.<\/p>\n

The carmaker employs more than 650,000 people across all its brands, which include Audi, Bentley, Skoda, Seat and Cupra, and has been hit hard by growing Chinese competition and the struggle to shift to electric cars from combustion engines.<\/p>\n

Months of talks with unions would follow if the proposals are accepted by the board, which is made up of company representatives, union representatives and local politicians, a structure set under the Volkswagen Act, a set of laws passed in the 1960s designed to protect the carmaker from hostile takeovers.<\/p>\n

Currently, only 19 of the 20 seats on the supervisory board are occupied, leaving the board\u2019s shareholder representatives with one fewer seat than the labour and workers\u2019 \u200bside, which continues to \u2060hold 10 seats.<\/p>\n

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Closures of plants covered by the \u201cVolkswagen law\u201d require a two-thirds majority, meaning approval for such a move is virtually impossible against union \u200bopposition.<\/p>\n

Two of the \u200bcompany\u2019s plants at risk \u2013 \u2060Zwickau and Neckarsulm \u2013 are not covered by the law, meaning their closure would not require supervisory board approval.<\/p>\n

However, it is likely that efforts to actively shut them down would be met with massive resistance and protests from unions and local \u2060politicians and \u200bcould include costly strikes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Volkswagen\u2019s proposal to slash up to 100,000 jobs and close factories faces a major test on Thursday as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60],"class_list":["post-540890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}