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VW factory danger stress-tests Germany's economic design

Having lost low-cost energy from Russia and facing unpredictability over its oncelucrative trade ties with China, big German organization is now dealing with a crunch point over a 3rd active ingredient in its long time formula for success consensual industrial relations.

Together, Germany's market leaders, trade unions and political leaders for decades looked for and found agreement over production and labour decisions that in turn provided the underpinning for the nation's post-war financial development.

Volkswagen's taboo-breaking threat to shutter German factories for the first time ever is a direct test of whether that agreement model can survive and still provide in a. international environment some see as existentially challenging.

De-industrialisation is happening in Germany, Volkswagen. works council head Daniela Cavallo stated today, demanding. services to make sure there will still be industrial tasks in. Germany in the future.

Manufacturing still represents 27% of total work in. Germany - below 32% from 20 years ago, International Labour. Organisation figures show, however still a far larger share than in. most innovative economies.

About 120,000 of the VW brand's 200,000-strong workforce is. in Germany.

The exact same consensual structures for labour relations that. over the years have purchased commercial peace and supplied job. security will now be put to work in negotiations in between. management and unions due to start next week.

Those talks occur as Volkswagen and other tradition. European cars and truck giants, including Stellantis and Renault, struggle. with high labour and energy costs as well as rising competitors. from lower-cost Asian competitors delivering more cars to the region.

The fact that worker agents have half the votes on. VW's supervisory board make it hard for the group to force. closures. Union leaders want a worked out option but. management say the scale of the difficulties indicates something has. to give.

If we continue like this, we will not be successful in the. improvement, Chief Financial Officer Arno Antlitz informed. workers at the carmaker's Wolfsburg head office.

It is our joint duty to improve the cost. effectiveness of the German websites.

IG Metall has said it could think about moving to a four-day. week as an alternative to closures - a move put in place in the. 1990s for over a decade as part of an earlier cost-cutting drive. that included smaller sized cuts in pay. Volkswagen has actually stayed. tight-lipped on whether this might work in today's environment.

TIME IS TIGHT

A different hair is what function the state need to have.

There is a lack of public investment to help establish. markets, said Olaf Lies, economy minister of Lower Saxony, where. Volkswagen's headquarters and most of the factories affected by. the end of the task security programme are based.

The state is likewise Volkswagen's second-biggest shareholder,. and holds 2 of the 20 seats on its supervisory board.

This is putting numerous companies, and for that reason Germany as a. place to do business, in a really tight spot, Lies told. Reuters.

This has actually not gotten away the notification of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's. coalition in Berlin. Anything to do with commercial production. which disappears will not come back, a source inside the. union told Reuters.

Both Economy Minister Robert Habeck and Finance Minister. Christian Lindner acknowledge Germany faces structural problems. as a service area, however they vary on what to do - even. down to what function electrical vehicles play in Germany's future.

While Habeck - from the ecologist Greens - said political leaders. need to offer state guarantees to support the transition to EVs,. Lindner - a pro-market Free Democrat - this week described the. fixation with EVs as an error and turned down federal government measures. to help the sector.

Scholz's unpopular coalition, whose component celebrations have. simply been damaged by the far-right in east German regional. votes, faces a basic election next year. The Volkswagen relocation. piles pressure on them to lastly set clear policy, some argue.

If such a commercial heavyweight really does need to. tighten its austerity programme and close plants, it is perhaps. an overdue wake-up call that the financial policy procedures taken. up until now need to be substantially increased, stated Carsten. Brzeski, global head of macro at ING.

Volkswagen is not alone. Thyssenkrupp, which for. decades avoided a significant restructuring at its steel department due. to stiff labour opposition, has actually also changed tack.

Its brand-new CEO Miguel Lopez has actually left from the strategy of. predecessors which kept relations with IG Metall steady to. demand a detailed revamp he says has been long overdue.

Similarly, chemical huge BASF CEO Markus Kamieth. said a series of plants have competitive problems. We must. for that reason also consider more plant closures.

In the meantime, however, even those who argue that German. organizations have been far too late to identify patterns in the international. economy and respond rapidly insist it is prematurely to call the. death of Deutschland AG and its industrial heavyweights.

We need forward-thinking ideas, stated Christiane Benner,. chair of IG Metall nationwide. VW has endured hard. scenarios before.

(source: Reuters)