Volkswagen workers across Germany stopped work on Monday as the conflict between the German automotive giant and its employees over changes to labor agreements and potential factory closures escalated.
Nine of Volkswagen’s car and component factories in Germany were affected by the so-called warning strikes, with work either being halted temporarily for demonstrations or shifts being cut short by workers.
Photos on Monday showed workers carrying banners with messages that read “strike ready,” and “warning strikes — our right,” according to a CNBC translation.
“If necessary, this will be the harshest wage dispute ever seen at Volkswagen,” Thorsten Gröger, chief negotiator of key union IG Metall, warned in a statement on Sunday. How long and intense the conflict will be is down to the businesses’ negotiations, he said.
In a speech on Monday, Gröger hinted at potential further escalations of the conflict. “Those who ignore the workforce are playing with fire — and we know how to turn sparks into flames,” he said.
Daniela Cavallo, head of the Volkswagen works council, on Monday also called on workers to take a stand. The ongoing warning strikes aim to stress the demands of workers and to let the board know that the only way through a crisis is with the workforce, not against it, she said.
Three rounds of negotiations have taken place between Volkswagen, the union and company’s works council so far without success. Further talks are set to take place later this month.
Cavallo added that the planned negotiations on Dec. 9 would likely set the course for either convergence or escalation.
“Unfortunately the signs sent by the board in recent times are not really pleasing,” she said according to a CNBC translation.
A spokesperson from Volkswagen on Sunday said that the company “respects the right of workers to participate in a warning strike.” The company continues to rely on constructive dialogue to find a “sustainable and mutually supported solution,” Volkswagen added in comments translated by CNBC.
It comes after Volkswagen in September scrapped a slew of labor agreements and said it was ending its employment protection agreement, which has been in place for its German workforce since 1994. The carmaker at the time also flagged that it may need to close factories in Germany for the first time in its history.
In October, the company’s works council said that Volkswagen management was also considering widespread pay cuts and layoffs.
The union and works council have argued against these moves, and even suggested their own plan for Volkswagen’s future which they say would avoid plant shut downs. These suggestions were brushed off by the company. Cavallo reiterated Monday that plant closures, mass layoffs and cuts of the existing wage levels were red lines for the workers side in negotiations.
Workers have so far been prevented from taking strike action under a peace obligation, which ended on Dec. 1. The last major strikes at Volkswagen took place in 2018, with around 50,000 workers participating, while smaller warning strikes of several thousand employees took place in 2021.