Volkswagen will close at least three factories. The works council of the German car giant announced this, according to media reports such as Bild and die Welt.

“The Board of Management wants to close at least three VW plants in Germany,” said Group Works Council Chairwoman Daniela Cavallo, adding that no plant is safe and all other sites will also be downsized. Tens of thousands of jobs will be cut.

The Osnabrueck plant, which recently lost a hoped-for order from Porsche, would be particularly at risk. Volkswagen employs around 120,000 people in Germany, about half of them in Wolfsburg. The VW brand operates a total of ten plants in Germany, including six in Lower Saxony, three in Saxony and one in Hesse. In September, VW scrapped its more than 30-year-old workplace safety program.

"This is a deep stab in the heart" of Volkswagen workers , says the IG Metall union, which has contested and rejected the closure plans, calling them "unacceptable" . The union has threatened consequences. "These aggressive plans of the management board are in no way acceptable and represent a break with everything we have experienced in the company in recent decades," says IG Metall district manager Thorsten Gröger.

"It is well known that VW is in a difficult situation. But for now there is no official news and we have to wait for VW to clarify," says the spokesman for German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Wolfgang Buechner, at a press conference in Berlin. The spokesman recalled that the Chancellor has already stated in recent weeks that "any wrong decisions by management must not fall on the shoulders of the workers and that jobs must be preserved."

(Unioneonline/D)

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