VW cancels works meeting at Dresden plant as crisis talks continue

An extraordinary works meeting planned for Volkswagen's site in the eastern German city of Dresden will not go ahead, with the works council, local management and the group's board in Wolfsburg agreeing to cancel the previously announced session.

Works council spokesman Heiko Lossie said Thursday afternoon's cancellation was "an indication of the pleasing circumstance that, at least at the Gläserne Manufaktur [Transparent Factory manufacturing site], there is currently no urgent need to inform the workforce," the local newspaper Sächsische Zeitung reported.

He said the group's board had in principle been willing to attend a meeting in Dresden, but the decision was taken to drop it. The next regular works meeting is due to take place in a few weeks, he added.

VW has not produced any cars at its Dresden site since the end of last year. After 24 years of series production, the last vehicle rolled off the line in December. 

The centrally located glass building is now being developed into an innovation campus in cooperation with Dresden University of Technology. The 230 employees are to keep their jobs for the time being.

The Gläserne Manufaktur was once considered a prestige project for VW and opened in 2001 with the production of the Phaeton luxury model.

VW's management board began a tour of its sites on Tuesday. Following chief executive Oliver Blume's announcement of a tightened cost-cutting programme, tens of thousands of additional jobs and four German sites at Europe's largest carmaker are under threat.

After an opening stop in Wolfsburg and visits to the Emden and Zwickau plants - both considered at risk - an extraordinary works meeting was held on Thursday morning at the engine plant in Chemnitz. No details of the content were initially available.