{"id":547610,"date":"2026-07-13T15:22:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T15:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/547610\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T15:22:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T15:22:10","slug":"vw-chief-confirms-plan-to-cut-50000-jobs-as-board-rejects-plant-closures-volkswagen-vw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/547610\/","title":{"rendered":"VW chief confirms plan to cut 50,000 jobs as board rejects plant closures | Volkswagen (VW)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The chief executive of Volkswagen has confirmed plans to cut 50,000 more jobs despite the carmaker\u2019s supervisory board rejecting his plan to shut four factories in Germany<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Oliver Blume told staff on Monday that proposals for a sprawling restructuring was \u201cthe most comprehensive realignment in the company\u2019s history\u201d and revolved around \u201c12 initiatives, approximately 150 pages and 45 individual resolutions\u201d for change.<\/p>\n

In his most detailed explanation of the management blueprint for the future, Blume told staff that \u201cdespite some decidedly controversial decisions\u201d on the table, he had perceived \u201cbroad support on the supervisory board\u201d of his analysis of the group\u2019s future and the need for action.<\/p>\n

Last Thursday, the board spent hours hearing Blume\u2019s proposals, previously leaked,<\/a> with staff protests<\/a> at all sites for Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche brands across Germany.<\/p>\n

Asked about staff concerns about jobs, Blume \u2013 who has positioned himself as a Volkswagen insider \u2013 said he was \u201cdoing everything in his power\u201d to keep the company competitive enough to survive. He promised to enter into \u201cconstructive discussions\u201d with staff.<\/p>\n

Blume joined Audi at 28, working as a planner<\/a> in its body shop and paint operations, before rising through the ranks to head Porsche and then taking on the leadership<\/a> of the entire group in 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can fully understand how deeply the current situation affects people within the company, as well as everyone in its immediate circle. I have spent my entire professional life with the group,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said the 2024 programme to reduce<\/a> the workforce by 50,000 jobs was already taking place in a \u201csocially responsible manner\u201d involving voluntary redundancy packages and partial retirement arrangements. The company has already cut 37,000 jobs from the workforce through these schemes, but a second phase of cuts aimed at reducing overheads was now necessary, he added.<\/p>\n

Blume said in the memo that a further 50,000 jobs may now be cut if the carmaker\u2019s costs were not reduced.<\/p>\n

He said company benchmarking put its overheads at 20% above comparable companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince half of our overhead costs result from personnel costs, a theoretical calculation \u2013 assuming no change in labour costs \u2013 would result in the elimination of approximately 50,000 positions worldwide,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He confirmed there was still a question mark over four factories, three Volkswagen plants – in Emden, Hanover and Zwickau \u2013 and the Audi plant in Neckarsulm, where production is scheduled to end between 2031 and 2034.<\/p>\n

Blume told staff that \u201csmart solutions are always better than closing a plant\u201d but that \u201cGermany cannot turn a blind eye\u201d after the car market was flooded with cars that are not needed, both from China and Europe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The group intends to reduce production of cars from a pre-pandemic level of 12m cars a year to 9m, he said, as the wider automotive industry in Germany warned of potential job collapse<\/a> if overproduction was not addressed.<\/p>\n

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In the past two years, Volkswagen has already reduced production by 2m, with another 500,000 units to be cut from production in China, where the carmaker is facing huge pressure from local competition too.<\/p>\n

Blume said the company \u201cmust continue on this path\u201d of reducing overheads by 20% at its factories, including cutting half of its model lineup, especially the variants of different brands.<\/p>\n

The company is also exploring alternative options for factories to secure jobs. He said it was still in advanced discussions about the transformation of its factory in Osnabr\u00fcck from automotive to defence production.<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, it was reported that a Volkswagen plan to make vehicles supporting the Israeli defence company Rafael \u2013 designed to protect jobs at Osnabr\u00fcck \u2013 had been blocked by Qatar\u2019s sovereign wealth fund, which has a 10% stake in VW.<\/p>\n

IG Metall, the main staff union, had no comment on Blume\u2019s comments but hit out against plans last Thursday.<\/p>\n

Christiane Benner, the chair of IG Metall, said the proposals were unacceptable particularly as the union had already made concessions.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of taking this achievement as a model, the board is confronting employees with new downsizing plans. Understandably, the resulting anger and uncertainty are immense. We need new ideas and concepts for utilising plant capacity, sensible considerations from the company,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The chief executive of Volkswagen has confirmed plans to cut 50,000 more jobs despite the carmaker\u2019s supervisory board…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60],"class_list":["post-547610","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\/547610","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=547610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}