Over 100,000 employees participated in the warning strikes at Volkswagen, according to IG Metall. The union specified the exact number as 102,600, with 50,000 employees in Wolfsburg taking part in the strike.
“No one of us wants the conflict with the company, but the company’s unprecedented approach to canceling our collective agreements makes this conflict unavoidable” said IG Metall’s negotiation leader Thorsten Gröger. Although the fourth round of negotiations was more constructive than previous ones, “this does not conceal the fact that there are still many differences between us and the company.”
It is still a “mammoth task” to bring the company back on the “path of reason” and prevent it from pursuing a course that could lead to plant closures and mass layoffs. “We hope our counterpart at the negotiating table takes the historical warning strike numbers as a hint with the warning flag” Gröger said.
The union is demanding a 7% pay increase and an additional €170 for apprentices in the collective bargaining negotiations. The union had proposed that an increase could be achieved through a “solidarity fund” within a “future plan.” The company, however, generally rejects pay increases and instead advocates for pay cuts due to the current crisis. The company also does not rule out plant closures and layoffs.