car industry
Cavallo: VW boss Diess has to step up in several places
Herbert Diess, Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG, during an interview. Photo: Carsten Koall / dpa / archive image
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The latest squabble at VW is far from over, observers believe that CEO Diess is ailing. Works council boss Cavallo goes into more detail about what needs to be improved in her opinion.
After the clear criticism of the current course from CEO Herbert Diess, VW works council chairman Daniela Cavallo has called for further improvements in management and communication.
The employee representative on the supervisory board told the “Handelsblatt” (Friday / online) that she is still not clear about the rumors about the need for a major downsizing even after the most recent works meeting. “The workforce is wondering what the company is going to put on the table. So far there is nothing. There are still no applications to us to deal with staff reductions. And we see absolutely no reason to do so. “
Long before the dispute, Cavallo had suspected after taking office in the spring: “There are some issues that are not easy and that we will have to negotiate this year.” Most recently, she was tough on Diess after he brought up to 30,000 potentially threatened jobs in the VW core division into play.
Better concrete plans
She wonders why the CEO, instead of such provocative advances, does not prefer to discuss concrete plans for the plant occupancy before the start of the major E-project Trinity in Wolfsburg. “I do believe that Herbert Diess formulated the right corporate strategy,” said Cavallo. “But now it’s a matter of implementing them.”
Since manager Dirk Hilgenberg has headed the Cariad software division, “Cariad has been going much better,” said the works council boss. But: “From our point of view, Cariad could have a higher speed. From my point of view, Mr. Diess should also provide more support. ” The CEO repeatedly referred to the expansion of software competence as one of VW’s most important goals. The manager Christian Senger, who initially set up Cariad, was surprisingly dismissed in 2020 and later made head of development for autonomous driving. Cavallo said there had been no functioning semiconductor management recently.
Employees should be taken along
For the headquarters in Wolfsburg, the following applies: “All employees that we have on board and will not be going into partial retirement in the near future must be taken along.” Cavallo believes that the new drives and technologies mean that much of the work that is lost can be offset by new activities. “The deserted factory will not exist in 2030 and not in 2040 either.” However, the board of directors could not criticize a lack of willingness to adapt if at the same time promised e-models were relocated from the planning or to other locations. For Wolfsburg, where the Golf and Tiguan in particular are currently being built, the works council is calling for at least one additional electrical project.
“I do not share Mr. Diess’ form of communication,” said Cavallo about his allegedly unsolicited considerations. “If there are issues on which he believes that we have to deviate from our previous appointments, then that should be on the table, and first and foremost where we meet.”