analysis
Status: October 15, 2021 4:30 p.m.
VW boss Diess surprisingly throws in a supervisory board meeting the reduction of 30,000 jobs. A short time later he rowed back, but the number was there. The insecurity in Wolfsburg is growing.
There is a risk of losing tens of thousands of jobs at Volkswagen? Corresponding reports on the sidelines of the VW supervisory board meeting caused a stir this week. That sounds threatening, but it’s unrealistic. Even the highest corporate boss cannot cut any number of jobs at the car manufacturer. On the one hand, there is an employment guarantee at least for the German VW locations until 2029. On the other hand, the board of directors in Wolfsburg has powerful opponents: the works council and the state of Lower Saxony co-govern via the supervisory board. Both see no need to cut jobs. And both would oppose it accordingly on the supervisory board.
Scare, drive, put pressure on?
Of course, VW boss Herbert Diess knows that very well. His appearance on the supervisory board should nevertheless have been precisely calculated. The goal: to startle, drive, put pressure on. Because Diess can feel the breath of its biggest competitor, Tesla, on its neck. Elon Musk is planning to build an electric car plant around 200 kilometers from Wolfsburg as the crow flies. According to Diess, the factory in Grünheide will probably set standards in terms of productivity. Tesla can produce its cars with fewer people. Compared to the planned Tesla factory, the VW factory in Wolfsburg would be too expensive, too unproductive, too sluggish.
A “typical Diess”
Painting the devil of massive job cuts on the wall is typical of Diess. The manager, who has led the VW Group since 2018, is considered restless and impatient – and not very diplomatic. Again and again Diess attracts attention with unflattering remarks about his own company. The CEO has already publicly blasphemed the “encrusted structures” in the traditional main plant in Wolfsburg. Most recently, he even denied the “will to live” of his own core workforce.
The number is in the room
In a time of acute chip shortages and short-time work, the debate about the loss of jobs at Volkswagen is likely to cause maximum uncertainty. Even if the CEO recently publicly asserted that he “did not have the reduction of jobs in mind”, Diess has set a mark with the number 30,000. Officially, it is said from the corporate headquarters that there are “no concrete scenarios”. At the same time, the press office formulates: “The debate has now started”. The group works council reacted with an emphatic calm: The reduction of 30,000 jobs would be – literally “absurd”. The battle lines in Wolfsburg are therefore marked out.