The Daily Populous Tuesday December 10th, 2024 morning edition
Authored by latintimes.com and submitted by DappyHayes

Volkswagen's CEO was met by a litany of boos from workers when he said the company isn't "operating in a fantasy world" this week as the German automaker threatens to shutter plants and slash thousands of jobs as part of cost-cutting measures, according to a report.

Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume was speaking to about 20,000 workers at the company's main plant in Wolfsburg, which employs about 60,000 workers, that was attended by German Labor Minister Hubertus Heil, Reuters reported.

The carmaker has been engaged in tense talks with the unions since it announced in September that it was considering taking drastic actions to reduce billions of dollars in costs because of competition from China.

About 100,000 union members began walkouts on Monday.

"As management we're not operating in a fantasy world. We are making decisions in a rapidly changing environment," Blume told the workers, who responded with choruses of boos.

The boos rained down again when he mentioned that Wolfsburg was close to his heart and that he had grown up nearby, the report said.

Volkswagen, like other European carmakers, has been buffeted by high manufacturing costs, sluggish electric vehicle sales and intense competition from China.

"The price pressure is immense," Blume said, referring to the company's need to ramp up sales in China, which used to be one of their biggest markets.

"We therefore urgently need to take measures to secure the future of Volkswagen. Our plans for this are on the table," he said.

extopico on December 9th, 2024 at 22:01 UTC »

Company definitely is operating in a fantasy world. The one where you close your eyes and ears and imagine a world where your strategy and vision make sense.

dyslexic__redditor on December 9th, 2024 at 21:36 UTC »

Volkswagen updated their projected profit for the year at 18 billion euros ($19 billion USD), so of course the next step is to fire as many workers as possible /s. Their executive suite has had a 15-25% increase in their salary every year for the last 5 years (at least), but their plan is to cut all non-c-suite employees salary by 10%. Beatings will continue until moral is improved.

Drahok on December 9th, 2024 at 21:01 UTC »

Management completely failed the strategy for VW. Stopped affordable cars and instead ventured into Audi territory (a company they own). Plus they jumped on the electric car train way too late and half-heartetly.

All of the current issues could have been prevented by management.