Four federal states call on VW to retain all sites

The four federal states with VW sites - Lower Saxony, Saxony, Hesse and Berlin - want to work together to ensure that the struggling car manufacturer does not close any sites. According to a joint position paper, the first goal of the economics ministers of these states is to fully preserve all locations. "This means that the individual locations will not be played off against each other." Several media outlets reported on the paper, which was published on October 10.

The state ministers also reject "harsh cuts" at the expense of employees. In the long term, a renewed, long-term contract to safeguard jobs must ensure that jobs are protected and expertise is retained, they demand. "Once expertise has been lost, it usually remains lost or can only be restored at great expense," warn Olaf Lies (Lower Saxony), Martin Dulig (Saxony), Kaweh Mansoori (Hesse) and Franziska Giffey (Berlin). All four ministers belong to the SPD.

Volkswagen has terminated the employment protection agreement with the trade unions in Germany that has been in place for decades. Plant closures and compulsory redundancies are under discussion. There is fierce opposition to this from the works council and IG Metall.