Christmas Miracle: Volkswagen Employees Save Their Jobs… for Now

Volkswagen strikes a historic deal with the unions and will not close any factories after all. Jobs are secured until 2030.

Volkswagen will not have to close its factories in Germany. The automaker reached an agreement with its union IG Metall aimed at keeping the 10 German factories open. The automaker also guarantees its workers jobs until the end of 2030, which is tomorrow.

According to The New York Times, the union agreed with the automaker to withdraw its demand for a salary increase. It will not request one before 2031. The new agreement comes after several months of negotiations over the future of the brand’s activities amid declining sales and demand.

Volkswagen also announced at the same time the elimination of 35,000 jobs out of 120,000 in Germany. How is that possible if no layoffs are planned? Through a well-known mechanism that involves reducing staff over the next five years via early retirement schemes and other voluntary measures in an effort to cut costs.

Last month, Volkswagen’s CEO, Thomas Schaefer, stated that the brand should close factories and lay off workers. Even the company’s works council conceded in November that salary reductions might be necessary. Rumors suggested that VW’s factory in Dresden, where the ID.3 is built, and the factory in Osnabrück, where the Porsche 718 is assembled, could be at risk. But that no longer seems to be the case.

Volkswagen now has 5 years to understand the new electric market and adapt to it. An extreme form of Darwinism on rapid steroids.

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