According to media reports, the VW Group is planning a five-year wage freeze in the face of significant overcapacities and weak sales figures. Its 660,000 employees across the globe fear further cuts as a result of the austerity measures, and trade unions are threatening with strikes. Europe’s press debates whether VW CEO Oliver Blume’s tough measures are necessary or will only exacerbate the carmaker’s problems.
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Better late than never
Info.cz commends Volkswagen’s top management for mustering the courage to finally tackle the company’s labour costs:
“A five-year pay freeze is an exceptionally harsh measure. In times of persistent high inflation it means a real decline of purchasing power and, for the company’s management, the certainty of massive strikes and protests, which the trade unions are threatening to organise. Nevertheless, there are good reasons for the move and it shows that CEO Oliver Blume and his team have finally come to their senses and realised that financing German social benefits is no longer possible at a time when the factories have excess capacity for hundreds of thousands of unsold cars and customers are refusing to foot the bill for Europe’s green fantasies. Now comes the hardest part: not giving in at the first sign of pressure from the trade unions.”
Growing uncertainty
Pravda voices concern about the future of Volkswagen’s large plant in Bratislava:
“It must be said that the pay freeze has not yet been confirmed. It would be an unpleasant contrast: a worker spends the whole day assembling a luxury Porsche but his pay doesn’t increase. And although salaries at Volkswagen are above average by our standards, this is a matter of principle. … The company expects flexibility, competitiveness and modesty from its employees, yet their future depends on decisions over which they have no influence. … A wage freeze could be followed by the suspension of all production. The uncertainty that this would entail is what the employees most fear.”