Hundreds of employees at the VW plant in Zwickau protested Thursday outside the factory gates to save their jobs and oppose the corporate leadership’s plans to close the plant. “This plant will not be closed—not against our will. We will defend this plant,” said Thomas Knabel, chief representative of IG Metall Zwickau, addressing the gathered workers.
The backdrop to this is cost-cutting plans by corporate leadership, which were scheduled to be discussed that afternoon during a supervisory board meeting in Wolfsburg. The VW workers voiced their anger and concerns about the future with loud chants. Employees from nearby VW suppliers as well as workers from the Opel plant in Eisenach, Thuringia, also took part in the protest.
IG Metall is fighting back with nationwide actions against impending plant closures and further job cuts at Volkswagen. According to media reports, four VW plants—including Zwickau—face closure in the coming years.
The Zwickau plant was the first location across the entire group to be fully converted to the production of electric cars in 2019. According to Volkswagen, the company invested 1.2 billion euros in this conversion. Currently, about 8,000 people are employed in Zwickau.
