By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
BUDAPEST/BERLIN (Worthy News) – Volkswagen, one of Germany’s largest automakers, intends to close three factories, impacting thousands of jobs, its works council said Monday.
Thousands gathered in Wolfsburg, where the firm has been headquartered for nearly nine decades. Blowing horns and whistles, workers insisted that no plant should shut.
However, Volkswagen reiterated on Monday, that restructuring was needed and said it would make concrete proposals on Wednesday.
“Management is absolutely serious about all this. This is not saber-rattling in the collective bargaining round,” confirmed Daniela Cavallo, Volkswagen’s works council head.
“This is the plan of Germany’s largest industrial group to start the sell-off in its home country of Germany,” Cavallo added, not specifying which plants would be affected or how many of Volkswagen Group’s roughly 300,000 staff in Germany could be laid off.
She said Volkswagen also plans to cut salaries at the brand by at least 10 percent and freeze pay in 2025 and 2026.
It comes as Germany, famed for its car industry, experiences social and economic difficulties and high production costs.
EU PUSH
Thomas Schaefer, the CEO of Volkswagen passenger cars, said its German factories were not productive enough adding that plant costs were “as much as 50 percent above what the company had budgeted for, making individual factories twice as expensive as the competition.” In addition, we at Volkswagen still handle many tasks internally that the competition has already outsourced more cost-effectively,” he stressed.
The European Union’s push toward the so-called “green energy” transition away from Russian oil, natural gas, and electric vehicles has also been linked to the current troubles in Europe’s largest economy.
The crisis comes after Volkswagen tried to overcome the aftermath of its 2015 diesel scandal, also known as Dieselgate, which cost tens of billions of dollars.
Last year, ex-Audi boss Rupert Stadler received a suspended sentence of one year and nine months by a German court, becoming the first former board member to receive such a sentence.
Volkswagen admitted that it had intentionally installed software programmed to switch engines to a cleaner mode during official emissions testing.
The software switched off again, enabling cars to drive more powerfully on the road while emitting as much as 40 times the legal pollution limit.
Besides paying nearly $900 million to impacted customers, Volkswagen made its biggest payout over the diesel scandal in the United States, where the environmental authorities revealed its emissions test cheating in September 2015.
So far, the company has paid over 32 billion euros ($34.7 billion), mainly in fines and damages in the U.S., while its shares struggle.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee declared Thursday that Hamas must be completely dismantled–drawing a sharp comparison to post-World War II Germany where the Nazis were barred from playing any future role. Speaking in a series of interviews, Huckabee reiterated President Donald Trump’s firm stance that Hamas will have “no future” in Gaza, calling any proposal that allows the terror group to retain power “as senseless as letting the Nazis rebuild Germany.”
The Trump administration on Thursday announced sweeping new sanctions aimed at crippling Iran’s oil revenue and its ability to fund terrorism and develop nuclear weapons.
In a major legislative triumph for President Donald Trump and House Republicans, the House of Representatives passed the “One Big Beautiful Bill” in the early hours of July 3 by a 218-214 vote, sending the sweeping $4.5 trillion package to the president’s desk for signature just ahead of his self-imposed July 4 deadline.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a U.S.-backed Christian-led aid organization, has issued a stark warning following what it calls “credible reports” that Hamas has placed bounties on both American and Palestinian aid workers. Despite the escalating threats, GHF says its mission will continue without fear or compromise.
The Pentagon has paused some shipments of U.S. weapons to Ukraine as part of an internal review to assess the impact on America’s own military stockpiles, Defense Department officials confirmed Wednesday. The move comes as the Trump administration prioritizes recalibrating U.S. defense commitments in light of strategic needs, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region.
The U.S. economy added 147,000 jobs in June, beating forecasts of 115,000, while the unemployment rate edged down to 4.1%, according to Labor Department data released July 3. Economists had expected a rise to 4.3%.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to take up two cases in its next term on laws banning transgender women from participating in girls and women’s sports, based on biological sex.