The IG Metall trade union is threatening to extend industrial action in the wage dispute with Volkswagen from next year.

"If there is no movement today, then 2025 will get off to a turbulent start," said IG Metall chief negotiator Thorsten Gröger in front of tens of thousands of VW employees on Monday. The union had approached the company and now the Board of Management had to show a willingness to compromise. Otherwise, "there will only be one answer to the cost-cutting hammer in 2025: the strike hammer," he said.

IG Metall boss Christiane Benner said that the automotive industry was undoubtedly in crisis. The Chinese market had collapsed, she said, and politicians had made a mistake by cutting subsidies for electric cars. "We won't solve these problems by closing plants. VW is not solving these problems by terminating job security. We will not solve these problems with less money," she said. IG Metall is ready for compromises, but this requires innovation, training and new models. VW management had been making the wrong decisions for years and had brought the company into the current situation. "And that is why IG Metall will not accept that you should pay the bill. That VW plants should be closed."

In the wage dispute, VW is demanding a ten percent pay cut and is threatening to close plants. The employees want to respond to the overcapacity with a fund that can finance a reduction in working hours at the particularly affected locations. However, they are not offering a pay cut, but rather the use of the upcoming wage increase.

(Report by Christina Amann, edited by Ralf Banser. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at Berlin.Newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or Frankfurt.Newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets)