Germany's VW debates cuts amid nationwide union protests
09.07.2026
Germany's IG Metall trade union staged nationwide protests on Thursday against threats to close plants and cut more jobs at Volkswagen, as the VW supervisory board met in the afternoon to discuss new cost-cutting plans for the group.
The meeting was expected to continue into the evening, while protests against the cost-cutting plans took place at more than a dozen sites.
Around 500 people gathered for a rally in Wolfsburg, where the German automotive giant has its global headquarters. They marched with horns and sirens to the management block, where the supervisory board later convened.
Opinions also differ sharply within the supervisory board.
VW chief executive Oliver Blume announced earlier this year that he was working on a new 2030 target for the group and intended to significantly tighten cost-cutting measures.
Up to 100,000 jobs could be cut worldwide, according to Manager Magazin, a German business magazine - twice as many as previously planned.
Four Volkswagen Group plants in Germany are facing closure, according to the magazine: Hanover, Emden, Zwickau and Neckarsulm.
According to Der Spiegel, a news magazine, vehicle production could be wound down at those sites by the end of 2034.
"The precise content of the future plan and the associated required measures are being discussed today between the supervisory board and the management board of Volkswagen AG," a spokesman said ahead of the meeting.
This would involve measures to reduce complexity and focus development and production more regionally. "And yes, we will also have to reduce overcapacity," he said.
Union resists 'brutal plans'
IG Metall trade union said it would resist what it called "brutal plans" by the corporate leadership.
"Across the country, colleagues have sent a clear message today: not like this," said union chairwoman Christiane Benner.
"They have worked hard, they have made concessions. Instead of viewing that performance as an example, management is confronting workers with new plans to cut jobs. The anger and uncertainty this creates is understandably great."
It was "absolutely irresponsible the way people's futures are currently being played with, the way fear is being stoked," Benner said at the rally in Wolfsburg. "We as IG Metall cannot stand by and let four plants in Germany be closed. We will not accept that."
Works council chairwoman Daniela Cavallo called on management to "stop this uncertainty. We need clarity for the workforce. We need a comprehensive plan." Restructuring should not only mean job cuts and plant closures, she argued.
Thursday's protest was comparatively small in scale, but IG Metall said it would "further increase the pressure in the second half of the year if necessary, should management stick to its plans."
VW was risking a "major conflict," warned Thorsten Gröger, IG Metall's district leader for Lower Saxony.
Osnabrück kicks off protests
The protests began in the morning in Osnabrück, where around 70 shop stewards and works councillors gathered at the factory gate, according to IG Metall.
Workers had now been waiting two years for a decision on the plant's future, said local IG Metall chief Stephan Soldanski.
The union reported the biggest turnout in Emden, with around 1,500 participants. Wielding whistles, flags and banners, they protested against the cost-cutting plans and the threatened closure of their site.
Large numbers of VW workers and trade unionists from other companies gathered at the company gate for the changeover between the early and late shifts.
In Ingolstadt, between 250 and 300 people gathered for a flash mob at the headquarters of VW subsidiary Audi, according to the union.
In Zuffenhausen north of Stuttgart, 250 Porsche workers staged a spontaneous protest, IG Metall said. Further actions were planned in Neckarsulm, Brunswick, Stuttgart, Hanover, Kassel, Chemnitz, Dresden, Zwickau, Leipzig, Munich, Nuremberg and Salzgitter.
Cuts already under way
VW has already announced the elimination of 50,000 jobs across the group in Germany by 2030. Of those, 35,000 jobs are to go at the core brand, with the remainder at subsidiaries such as Audi and Porsche.
Blume has justified the expansion of the cost-cutting plans by pointing to deteriorating operating conditions. Tariffs, wars, geopolitical tensions and intensifying competition are creating headwinds, the chief executive said.
The group's previous business model - developing and producing in Europe and selling worldwide - no longer works, he argued.
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