Think US Unions are tough...Volkswagen: $70/hour & 28.8 hour work week must end
09-17-06, 10:42 AM
#1
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Think US Unions are tough...Volkswagen: $70/hour & 28.8 hour work week must end
This week, Volkswagen and German labor unions have agreed to renew discussions on extending the work week to a grueling 35-hours/week.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap...k.php
Quote, originally posted by Bloomberg »
Published: September 11, 2006 BERLIN A labor union agreed Monday to enter talks with Volkswagen AG on its demand that employees work longer for no extra pay at factories in Germany.
The IG Metall union said a commission responsible for wage agreements with Volkswagen voted in favor of entering formal talks, three days after the carmaker said it would consider guaranteeing jobs at six plants. No date was set for the meeting.
Volkswagen, Europe's biggest car maker, is seeking drastic cuts in production costs for its VW-brand vehicles such as its flagship Golf, which are selling strongly but bringing in little profit.
It wants to extend the working week at six plants in western Germany that manufacture VW-brand cars from the current 28.8 hours to 35 hours.
In return, the IG Metall union wants the company to guarantee production levels — protecting jobs and ensuring that the poorly utilized plants stay open.
On Friday, VW personnel chief Horst Neumann said the automaker was "ready to bring the subject of production onto the right track" and examine performance-related pay for VW workers.
VW Chief Executive Bernd Pischetsrieder has said he wants an agreement by November so the company can make decisions on future investments.
Shares of Volkswagen were down 1.7 percent at €61.07 (US$77.37) in Frankfurt trading.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/...rmany
Quote, originally posted by Bloomberg »
Volkswagen AG, Europe's largest carmaker, and its main union suspended talks on cutting labor costs until September after failing to agree on extending the workweek for German employees to 35 hours.
Decisions on building new models and increasing production at components factories hinges on Volkswagen's 100,000 western German workers putting in 6.2 more hours a week without a pay increase, Horst Neumann, the Wolfsburg, Germany-based carmaker's personnel director, said today in an e-mailed statement.
``In September, we need to come to a clear agreement with IG Metall'' on how to make Volkswagen's western German plants more ``competitive,'' Neumann said.
Chief Executive Officer Bernd Pischetsrieder last month said he wanted an agreement by the end of July with labor representatives over the longer workweek. Pischetsrieder is in the midst of an overhaul of the Volkswagen brand that includes eliminating as many as 20,000 jobs, or 20 percent of the western German workforce.
``Volkswagen has to understand that contract discussions are only possible when the company makes binding assurances regarding production, investment and jobs,'' Hartmut Meine, IG Metall's chief negotiator with the carmaker, said in a separate e-mailed statement today.
Parts-Plant Agreement Soon
IG Metall and Volkswagen both said they're close to an agreement on the ``future development'' of the German parts factories. Wolfgang Bernhard, the Volkswagen brand chief, said in February the carmaker needed to consider selling or closing portions of the components factories, which lost ``hundreds of millions of euros'' last year, to make the brand profitable.
Volkswagen has been using voluntary measures, such as early retirements and employee buyouts, to scale back the workforce while sticking to the terms of a November 2004 contract prohibiting mass firings in exchange for a wage freeze. The agreement, intended to save 2 billion euros ($2.53 billion) annually, is valid through 2011.
The carmaker on June 1 offered 85,000 workers at six western German factories severance packages of as much as 249,480 euros to leave the company. Volkswagen is also offering early retirement packages to as many as 14,000 older workers under another IG Metall agreement.
Volkswagen spends an average 55 euros an hour on labor at the German plants, compared with the 40 euros per hour spent by competitors, Bernhard has said.
Bernhard threatened last month to move production of Volkswagen's Golf hatchback, its most popular model, from the main Wolfsburg plant if union leaders don't agree to working 35 hours a week, instead of 28.8 hours, for the same pay.
The carmaker also wants within the next six months to begin talks on a unified labor contract for all German employees, who are now covered by a range of agreements, Neumann said today.
The Volkswagen brand's reorganization is part of a plan by Pischetsrieder to more than quadruple groupwide pretax profit to 5.1 billion euros in 2008 from 1.1 billion euros in 2004.
To contact the reporter on this story: Chad Thomas in Berlin at cthomas16@bloomberg.net .
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap...k.php
Quote, originally posted by Bloomberg »
Published: September 11, 2006 BERLIN A labor union agreed Monday to enter talks with Volkswagen AG on its demand that employees work longer for no extra pay at factories in Germany.
The IG Metall union said a commission responsible for wage agreements with Volkswagen voted in favor of entering formal talks, three days after the carmaker said it would consider guaranteeing jobs at six plants. No date was set for the meeting.
Volkswagen, Europe's biggest car maker, is seeking drastic cuts in production costs for its VW-brand vehicles such as its flagship Golf, which are selling strongly but bringing in little profit.
It wants to extend the working week at six plants in western Germany that manufacture VW-brand cars from the current 28.8 hours to 35 hours.
In return, the IG Metall union wants the company to guarantee production levels — protecting jobs and ensuring that the poorly utilized plants stay open.
On Friday, VW personnel chief Horst Neumann said the automaker was "ready to bring the subject of production onto the right track" and examine performance-related pay for VW workers.
VW Chief Executive Bernd Pischetsrieder has said he wants an agreement by November so the company can make decisions on future investments.
Shares of Volkswagen were down 1.7 percent at €61.07 (US$77.37) in Frankfurt trading.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/...rmany
Quote, originally posted by Bloomberg »
Volkswagen AG, Europe's largest carmaker, and its main union suspended talks on cutting labor costs until September after failing to agree on extending the workweek for German employees to 35 hours.
Decisions on building new models and increasing production at components factories hinges on Volkswagen's 100,000 western German workers putting in 6.2 more hours a week without a pay increase, Horst Neumann, the Wolfsburg, Germany-based carmaker's personnel director, said today in an e-mailed statement.
``In September, we need to come to a clear agreement with IG Metall'' on how to make Volkswagen's western German plants more ``competitive,'' Neumann said.
Chief Executive Officer Bernd Pischetsrieder last month said he wanted an agreement by the end of July with labor representatives over the longer workweek. Pischetsrieder is in the midst of an overhaul of the Volkswagen brand that includes eliminating as many as 20,000 jobs, or 20 percent of the western German workforce.
``Volkswagen has to understand that contract discussions are only possible when the company makes binding assurances regarding production, investment and jobs,'' Hartmut Meine, IG Metall's chief negotiator with the carmaker, said in a separate e-mailed statement today.
Parts-Plant Agreement Soon
IG Metall and Volkswagen both said they're close to an agreement on the ``future development'' of the German parts factories. Wolfgang Bernhard, the Volkswagen brand chief, said in February the carmaker needed to consider selling or closing portions of the components factories, which lost ``hundreds of millions of euros'' last year, to make the brand profitable.
Volkswagen has been using voluntary measures, such as early retirements and employee buyouts, to scale back the workforce while sticking to the terms of a November 2004 contract prohibiting mass firings in exchange for a wage freeze. The agreement, intended to save 2 billion euros ($2.53 billion) annually, is valid through 2011.
The carmaker on June 1 offered 85,000 workers at six western German factories severance packages of as much as 249,480 euros to leave the company. Volkswagen is also offering early retirement packages to as many as 14,000 older workers under another IG Metall agreement.
Volkswagen spends an average 55 euros an hour on labor at the German plants, compared with the 40 euros per hour spent by competitors, Bernhard has said.
Bernhard threatened last month to move production of Volkswagen's Golf hatchback, its most popular model, from the main Wolfsburg plant if union leaders don't agree to working 35 hours a week, instead of 28.8 hours, for the same pay.
The carmaker also wants within the next six months to begin talks on a unified labor contract for all German employees, who are now covered by a range of agreements, Neumann said today.
The Volkswagen brand's reorganization is part of a plan by Pischetsrieder to more than quadruple groupwide pretax profit to 5.1 billion euros in 2008 from 1.1 billion euros in 2004.
To contact the reporter on this story: Chad Thomas in Berlin at cthomas16@bloomberg.net .
09-17-06, 12:40 PM
#3
Some weeks back, a buddy sent me an article about how the work week became established at 40 hours. Basically it goes back to a progression of labor from the 1900's. Some studies in the later or 40's deemed 35-38 hours were better in terms of economy and worker efficiency. These days it's not, yet little has been done to adjust for the current times. 
If I can get a link for the srticle, I'll post it.
Eurpoe has has more vacation days.
If I can get a link for the srticle, I'll post it. Eurpoe has has more vacation days.
09-17-06, 02:22 PM
#4
Lexus Fanatic
Super-expensive German labor and unproductivity is also costing them jobs. It is one reason why Audi won't build the TT at the German Ingolstadt plant.....they build it in Hungary instead.
Even in my OWN job in aviation and Flight Procedures , which is certainly complex and demanding, I would be embarassed to make $70 an hour and work only a 28-hour week on average. First of all, many weeks you couldn't get all the work done in 28 hours, at least not done correctly...we routinely get 40 hours plus overtime ( which in the Government is straight time, not time-and-a half ), and second, IMO it would rip off the taxpayers.
Perhaps this is one of the reasons the quality of newer German-designed cars has fallen off so rapidly in recent years.....they are not putting the necessary time into both designing them and building them.
Even in my OWN job in aviation and Flight Procedures , which is certainly complex and demanding, I would be embarassed to make $70 an hour and work only a 28-hour week on average. First of all, many weeks you couldn't get all the work done in 28 hours, at least not done correctly...we routinely get 40 hours plus overtime ( which in the Government is straight time, not time-and-a half ), and second, IMO it would rip off the taxpayers.
Perhaps this is one of the reasons the quality of newer German-designed cars has fallen off so rapidly in recent years.....they are not putting the necessary time into both designing them and building them.
Last edited by mmarshall; 09-17-06 at 02:34 PM.
09-17-06, 02:32 PM
#5
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28.8 hours a week?!?!?! and $70 and hour?!
They have been in Heaven over there.
28 hrs a week is a vacation in the US. Tons of Americans have to work 50, 60, 70+ hours a week to survive. Those Germans better not complain.
They have been in Heaven over there.
28 hrs a week is a vacation in the US. Tons of Americans have to work 50, 60, 70+ hours a week to survive. Those Germans better not complain.
