VW workers protest in Germany over proposed job cuts and factory closures

Demonstrations at 18 sites set up as radical transformation plan put to board of Europe’s biggest carmaker Volkswagen’s proposal to slash up to 100,000 jobs and close factories faced a major test on Thursday as it was formally put to its supervisory board, with protests at the company’s plants in Germany. IG Metall organised demonstrations involving shop stewards and union council members at 18 sites at Europe’s biggest carmaker, including at its headquarters. The influential staff union told the chief executive, Oliver Blume, that he could not “pass the buck for failures of recent years on to the workforce”. Christiane Benner, the chair of the union, said the protests sent “a clear signal to the board”, which was asked to review the wide-reaching plans for the first time today at VW’s headquarters in Wolfsburg. Thursday’s demonstrations targeted factories producing cars for Volkswagen and other brands in the manufacturing group, including Audi, Porsche and the truck and bus maker Man, between 11.20am and 2pm. In a day of action against the reported job losses, about 70 people gathered at the factory gate at the Volkswagen plant in the north-western city of Osnabrück, which employs