Before the next VW tariff round on Monday, SPD chief Saskia Esken has called on the company’s leadership to make concessions. “It must succeed in preserving and securing future industrial jobs,” Esken told the “New Osnabrücker Zeitung.” “The General Works Council has submitted a substantial offer. Employees show, as not for the first time, a willingness to compromise. The harsh reaction of the corporate leadership and the brutal measures announced, which are often threatened, are unbearable in this way.”
Just a few months ago, the VW top management had found it suitable to distribute 4.5 billion euros in dividends. “And now it’s as if all the problems are to be solved on the backs of the employees? That’s why the anger of those affected is very well understandable,” Esken said, looking at the strike by the workforce and adding, “The employee representatives have been making constructive consolidation proposals for a long time. The one who blocks is the management. The announcement of plant closures without consultation with the employee representatives was a provocation.”
Esken now also sees the shareholders in the duty: “It also needs the willingness of shareholders to participate in the VW’s recovery and the preservation of all locations through dividend restraint.” The state of Lower Saxony, she said, does this, although it means a lack of money for the budget. “But the rescue of the industry takes priority. Not just because of the immediately affected workers: a lot of added value is hanging at Volkswagen, which we may not give up.”
Lower Saxony’s Minister President Stephan Weil (SPD) has made a demand for a new purchase premium, which Esken rejected. They are working on socially graded purchase incentives. “A general new purchase premium is currently not feasible for the taxpayer, as mainly Chinese manufacturers would be supported, who already have price-effective e-cars on the market than local competitors,” Esken said. VW, BMW, and Mercedes must also build affordable entry models in German plants in the electric segment. “If there are such models, a new purchase premium is sensible and feasible.”
Esken also finds it “funny” that Markus Söder (CSU) is now calling for purchase incentives for e-cars after initially fighting against the ban on fossil-fuelled vehicles, so that diesel and gasoline cars could survive, and then demanding support for the electric mobility on the next day. She recognizes only a cognitive dissonance, but not serious politics.