FRANKFURT, Sept 19 (Askume) – The German government is looking for ways to support Volkswagen, Economy Minister and Deputy Chancellor Robert Harbach said on Thursday when asked about the threat of job cuts from the country’s biggest carmaker.
Volkswagen said this month that it needed to cut costs at its namesake brand in Germany because of high costs, low productivity and tough competition.
“Volkswagen is very important for Germany,” Habeck told reporters. The minister will visit the Volkswagen plant in Emden on Friday.
Harbach declined to comment on a report in German monthly Manager Magazine that some within the company believe the group’s German workforce will shrink by 30,000 people in the medium term, which would be 30% of the group’s total German workforce. No source is cited.
A spokesman for the automakers’ union said the figure was “far from baseless and is total nonsense.”
Management and unions will begin negotiations next week to replace a long-term pay agreement, which Volkswagen scrapped earlier this month and threatened to close German plants for the first time in history.
