Emden fears for VW plant’s future, but works council says the door is not closed

Volkswagen’s Emden plant has been left fighting for its future after the automaker agreed on a sweeping savings plan. The works council says the existing agreement protecting production at the site still gives employees something to hold on to.

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Highly uncertain.

Workers and their families are “highly uncertain” about what comes next, works council leader Manfred Wulff said. He urged an end to the pressure surrounding the plant so employees could get back to work. The Emden workforce, he added, remains ready to meet previously agreed cost-saving targets and is on course to do so.

Volkswagen’s supervisory board agreed to reduce group production to 9 million vehicles a year and eliminate another 50,000 jobs worldwide. The company said it could not guarantee competitive follow-up production, staggered between 2031 and 2034, at Emden, Zwickau, Hannover or Audi’s Neckarsulm plant. It said alternative uses would be examined in parallel.

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As of today, I still assume that this agreement is valid.

Wulff pointed to a 2024 collective agreement that promised continued vehicle production in Emden from 2031 if the plant met its targets. “As of today, I still assume that this agreement is valid,” he said. About 7,700 people work at the plant, the most important industrial employer in East Frisia.

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For us, it is completely beyond question that there must be a future here.

The conflict has not been resolved, Wulff said, but pushed into next year. Lower Saxony Economics Minister Grant Hendrik Tonne visited the plant and said the state needed clarity quickly. “For us, it is completely beyond question that there must be a future here,” he said. Lower Saxony owns 20% of Volkswagen and has two representatives on its supervisory board. “The door is not closed,” Wulff said.

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The door is not closed.