Car industry Warning strike at VW in Wolfsburg has begun
The second warning strike in the current collective bargaining round has begun at the car manufacturer Volkswagen. The first employees at the main plant in Wolfsburg stopped work at 10.30 a.m., according to an IG Metall spokesperson.
09.12.2024, 11:49
SDA
Production is to be halted for four hours. In addition to Wolfsburg, Zwickau, Hanover, Emden, Kassel-Baunatal, Braunschweig, Salzgitter and Chemnitz as well as the so-called Gläserne Manufaktur in Dresden are again affected.
With the renewed nationwide warning strike at nine locations, the union wants to put pressure on the deadlocked wage dispute over wage cuts, redundancies and plant closures. This afternoon, representatives of the company and employees will meet in Wolfsburg for their fourth round of negotiations.
Prior to this, a protest rally is planned with IG Metall chairwoman Christiane Benner. IG Metall is expecting tens of thousands of participants.
With the strike, the union is defending itself against multi-billion euro cuts at Europe's largest car manufacturer. VW is demanding a ten percent pay cut from its employees. Plant closures and compulsory redundancies are also on the cards.
IG Metall threatens further escalation
IG Metall wants to prevent this. It is demanding the preservation of all sites and a job guarantee for the approximately 130,000 employees. The union rejects wage cuts. In the event that no agreement is reached in today's collective bargaining round, it is threatening to extend the industrial action.
Today's warning strike will initially affect the early and normal shifts. The strike is then to be repeated on each shift, with employees ending their work four hours earlier in each case. The action is to last until the end of the night shift on Tuesday morning.
According to IG Metall, almost 100,000 employees went on warning strike for two hours last Monday, bringing the production lines to a temporary standstill. It was the first major warning strike at Volkswagen since 2018.
