VW boss says everyone has to pull together as staff fear further cuts

Volkswagen Group boss Oliver Blume is preparing the workforce for extensive cuts and calling for unity amid a global industry crisis and ahead of a series of meetings with staff in Germany.

"The next few weeks will be crucial: everyone must pull together," he told mass circulation newspaper Bild am Sonntag. "We have drawn up the largest transformation plan in the history of the Volkswagen Group."

Volkswagen is holding a series of extraordinary staff meetings throughout the country for the rest of the month. Worker representatives have been demanding details of the cost-cutting plans.

'The next few years will be decisive'

"The next few years will be decisive in determining who stays in the race and who comes out on top," Blume said, pointing to enormous pressure to cut costs, fundamental shifts in the market and global upheaval.

"The global car industry is in the midst of a massive crisis. And the Volkswagen Group is right in the thick of it. Geopolitics, trade barriers, regulation, weak markets and fierce competition are all taking their toll." 

Blume appealed to the workforce to fight: "For the people, our company and Germany's competitiveness as a business location."

Earlier in the year, Blume had said he was working on a new "Vision 2030" strategy for the company involving significantly tighter cost-cutting measures. That unleashed fears within the Group that four plants and up to 50,000 additional jobs could be at risk.

Only recently, Blume said in the situation at Volkswagen was "more than critical," in an interview published on the company's intranet.

He said there was an urgent need for action and while the 3.8% return on investment was solid, it was nowhere near enough to generate sufficient funds needed in the long term for new technologies, products and to maintain the company's sites.