Since Volkswagen's shock announcement last Thursday of likely redundancies and plant closures in Germany for its flagship VW brand, trade unions and politicians have been bracing themselves for difficult negotiations. IG Metall, the majority union in the company, is rejecting factory closures and redundancies as "absolute red lines".
Following the announcement of potential redundancies and factory closures, IG Metall resurrected an idea that had already been used for 12 years at Volkswagen, between 1994 and 2006, and that is work-sharing and the introduction of a four-day week.
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Article authors
Thomas Schnee
Correspondent in Germany
As a Berlin correspondent for the French and Swiss press since the late 1990s, I cover a wide range of economic, political and social issues, with a particular focus on the German business and labour market. My areas of interest include co-determination, digitalisation, demographics and ESG/DEI policies.