Volkswagen plans to close ‘at least’ 3 German plants and cut thousands of jobs

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/10/28/business/volkswagen-factory-closures-layoffs/index.html

Posted by ObjectiveObserver420

7 comments
  1. Krauts done fucked themselves. Honestly this is funny as fuck and those regards completely deserve it. Problem is that I own three VAG vehicles and the other is also German.

  2. You have to laugh at quotes from managers in this article about competition. If their approach to remain competitive is basically to stay course, outsource and downsize, then they aren’t really being competitive. They are holding out and hoping something hits their competitors. Almost like innovation is the last thing on the list for companies these days.

  3. > Labor costs were also “significantly too high,” Volkswagen said, adding that it would make “concrete proposals” for reducing these when it resumes talks with labor unions on Wednesday.
    >The company did not respond to a CNN request seeking clarity on the factory closures and job cuts. It has previously said that it would seek to terminate an employment protection agreement with labor unions, which has been in place since 1994, to “future proof” the business.

    Sure, fewer cars are being sold (article says 500k/yr in Europe) but they try to say it’s also necessitated by competition from china when half the west is sub-5 years away from banning Chinese vehicles – solving the problem for them. But VW is trying to act as a regional (German) employer while being an international manufacturing conglomerate. VW knows what the political landscape looks like both home and abroad.

    This feels like “deep cuts and restructuring” to labour being pushed forward under cover of convenient (real) headwinds. Once again capital has no plans to reign in management, they even get a dig in on the inefficiency of German labour in the article. (For the record I’m not against cuts etc. but this feels disproportionate and targeted)

  4. Capitalism. Where competitiveness means neglecting innovation, then cut employee salaries and outsource the rest to some cheap third world country while the c suite is getting nice bonuses.

    Why americans are willing to bend over for the wealthy elite ill never understand, but yeah

  5. The article does not mention that Germany lost their cheap energy source, which was their competitive edge for manufacturing. A lot of German industry is facing a downturn.

  6. Why is the article trying to make it seem like it’s entirely the fault of Volkswagen (at least from what I seem to understand)? Germany is in an auto crisis and much of that industry is in decline, not just VW.

  7. Should have invested in new technologies and lobbied the government for the investment. It appears they learnt nothing from influx of Japanese and Korean cars and want to wait until magically something happens. China isn’t disappearing soon and the need for EV’s will only go up.

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