Automotive industry: Kretschmer says longer working hours at VW are possible
Translated from German and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.
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- Saxony’s Minister-President Michael Kretschmer said a return to a 40-hour working week could be an option for Volkswagen’s Zwickau plant.
- He said Germany’s cost competitiveness must improve without reducing wages, and called for less regulation and lower energy costs.
- VW chief executive Oliver Blume said no plant closures had been decided, but several sites, including Zwickau, lacked competitive production plans for the 2030s.
Michael Kretschmer says Volkswagen workers may need to return to a 40-hour week as the future of the company’s Zwickau plant remains under discussion.
“We are too expensive,” the Saxony minister-president said on the ZDF Morgenmagazin program. He argued that Germany must face this reality, but said longer working hours should not mean lower wages. Kretschmer called for a mix of measures, including “to some extent, longer working hours.”
We are too expensive.
Kretschmer struck an optimistic note about Zwickau, describing it as the most efficient Volkswagen plant in Germany. “Of course, this company will manage to be back at the forefront,” he said.
To some extent, longer working hours.
He said Volkswagen needed support from German politicians and the European Union, but not in the form of financial aid. Instead, he called for less regulation and lower costs, including in the energy sector.
Volkswagen chief executive Oliver Blume visited the Saxony plant on Wednesday. He reiterated that the company had made no decisions on plant closures, while saying that Zwickau, Emden, Hanover and Neckarsulm still had no competitive production allocation for the 2030s.
Of course, this company will manage to be back at the forefront.
About this summary
Originally published by Die Zeit in German. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.
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