War broke out between VW's central WC and the Porsche group's management. On September 17, 2007, the WC lodged a complaint to the Stuttgart labour court against the agreement on staff representation within the Porsche Holding EC. It initiated a summary proceeding in order to prevent the new European company from registring to the trade register. (Ref. 070780)
The complaint VW’s WC lodged last week is not only a precedent to follow in the recent history of the EC, the new European lega form for companies. It also expresses the worsening of a conflict which has been opposing two company cultures, VW’s and Porsche’s. Finally, it symbolizes the fight, more and more difficult, of a bastion of German unionism trying to preserve its role.
Porsche wants to get rid of some of VW’s old social traditions. After it gradually bought 31% of Volkswagen’s capital, the Porsche group started, at the beginning of 2007, the process to turn into an EC through the creation of a holding company managing Porsche’s shareholders’ parts both in Porsche AG (100%) and in Volkswagen AG (31%.)
Do you have information to share with us?