Volkswagen\u2019s relations with its own workforce could easily stymie any agreement on restructuring, but communication woes abound. By Stewart Burnett<\/p>\n
Volkswagen employees have criticised the management board\u2019s \u201cdisastrous external communication\u201d over the group\u2019s ongoing restructuring, according to an internal works council survey published on the company intranet, with staff and their families describing themselves as \u201cunsettled and frightened\u201d. The findings arrive just ahead of nine extraordinary works meetings scheduled across German plants this week, beginning in Wolfsburg on 25 August.<\/p>\n
The criticism centres less on the substance of the cuts\u2014although much contention remains around this too\u2014but the lack of detail surrounding them. Chief Executive Oliver Blume reiterated to staff in a memo 21 August that the same four plants that have been earmarked for potential closure\u2014Emden, Hanover, Neckarsulm and Zwickau\u2014are not expected to reach competitive capacity utilisation through the 2030s. Still, he stressed no decision has been made on specific closures. Workers pressed for clearer answers on those sites, on job security, and on the future of early-retirement and severance programmes, and none of these were resolved in the latest memo.<\/p>\n
Blume has rejected out of hand persistent accusations that Volkswagen is withholding information from its workforce, saying in July that the company \u201ccontinuously\u201d keeps employees informed \u201cthrough internal channels, but above all through direct personal dialogue\u201d. The restructuring itself remains Volkswagen\u2019s largest ever, potentially including a further 50,000 job cuts on top of the 50,000 already planned, or the carve-out of entire divisions. Blume has cautioned that the agreed-upon 50,000 figure is in fact, \u201cnot a fixed target\u201d but rather \u201can indicator of the scale of action required\u201d.<\/p>\n
The financial case for deeper cuts is not really in dispute internally, even if it will prove highly painful for workers. Blume said Volkswagen\u2019s overhead costs remain more than 30% above comparable automakers, and that current margins of 3.8%, while reasonably enough in the present environment, are \u201cby no means sufficient to generate enough funds in the long term for new technologies, new products and our sites\u201d.<\/p>\n
Zwickau\u2019s own utilisation is forecast to fall from 88% this year to just 42% by 2030. The trajectory is bad enough that its inclusion among the threatened plants is difficult to dispute on cost grounds alone, regardless of how badly the wider announcement has landed with staff. Chinese automakers are looking to use, or even outright acquire, existing European production facilities to make their own vehicles, but some of Volkswagen\u2019s most viable partners here have also criticised how well-equipped these sites are. Xpeng has been in talks<\/a> with Volkswagen about potentially acquiring a brownfield site, but one of the company\u2019s executives described those same sites as \u201ca little bit old\u201d earlier in 2026.<\/p>\n Volkswagen\u2019s governance structure gives labour meaningful leverage to slow the process rather than simply object to it. Lower Saxony, which holds a shareholding and a veto on the supervisory board, and worker representatives together control half of that board\u2019s seats, meaning Blume\u2019s insistence that deeper cuts are existential still has to clear a body entirely capable of delaying or diluting whatever scale of restructuring management ultimately proposes. The state\u2019s premier and culture minister, both supervisory board members, visited the Hanover plant on 24 August.<\/p>\n