Volkswagen chief negotiator Arne Meiswinkel insists on savings before the start of the fourth round of negotiations in the wage dispute with IG Metall.

He said in Wolfsburg on Monday that the company still needed a short-term and sustainable cost reduction. "This is the only way we can remain competitive in economically challenging times." The car manufacturer must reduce its overcapacity and cut factory costs. However, Meiswinkel said that the proposal from the employee side was not enough.

The union called on Volkswagen management to be willing to compromise. IG Metall chief negotiator Thorsten Gröger said that it was still possible to reach an agreement before Christmas, but that this would require concessions from the Board of Management. The Volkswagen brand was at risk of being damaged by the behavior of the Board of Management. "If you want everything, you end up with nothing," warned Gröger.

The wage negotiations will be accompanied by another warning strike at the company. The employees will stop work for four hours from the morning. VW is demanding a ten percent pay cut in the wage dispute 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 wage reduction, 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)