No fewer than nine special employee meetings are scheduled at Volkswagen in the coming days. At stake is nothing less than the future of the company and its locations. Volkswagen’s management wants to cut costs and improve competitiveness. Employees, unions, and politicians are worried about tens of thousands of jobs and the facilities in Emden, Hanover, Zwickau, and Neckarsulm.
Why is the situation so tense?
The company is struggling with high costs and a challenging business environment. “The situation is more than critical,” VW CEO Oliver Blume said recently in an interview published on the company’s intranet and obtained by dpa. According to Blume, VW isn’t earning enough to finance its future. Cost-cutting measures taken so far have not been sufficient. “We are oversized. That often makes us too slow and too complicated,” the VW boss said, describing the problem.
He pointed to the serious situation facing the industry. “This is not a VW crisis, but a crisis affecting the entire automotive industry.” He cited U.S. tariffs, the slump in the Chinese market with massive price declines, geopolitical conflicts such as those in the Persian Gulf, increasingly fierce competition in Europe, and heavy regulation as major challenges.
