(Reuters) – Volkswagen (ETR:) stated it plans to finish its job safety programme — which has been in place since 1994 and prevents job cuts till 2029 — because it faces strain from Asian opponents.
The IG Metall union says the next German factories may very well be affected by Volkswagen ending its job safety scheme.
All are within the north-western state of Decrease Saxony, other than the Kassel plant which is in Hesse, in central Germany.
BRUNSWICK
Volkswagen’s oldest plant employed about 7,400 employees as of 2022, in a metropolis of about 250,000 individuals. It produces elements resembling entrance and rear axles, steering and battery techniques in addition to equipment, gear, instruments and moulds. It has additionally been making batteries for Volkswagen’s new modular electrical drive matrix MEB automobiles since 2019.
EMDEN
Based in 1964 to reap the benefits of its close by seaport, the plant initially specialised in producing the VW Beetle, it now makes fashions such because the VW Passat and the VW electrical ID.4.
Greater than 8,000 workers work on the manufacturing unit, which produces round 180,000 automobiles a yr, in comparison with a inhabitants of round 50,000 within the metropolis of Emden.
HANOVER
The manufacturing unit employs round 14,000 individuals in Decrease Saxony, a area of 8 million which can be Volkswagen’s second largest shareholder.
It’s the place manufacturing of the VW ‘Bulli’ started in 1956 and now produces the sixth-generation T-Sequence of the camper van, comprising vans and minivans, in addition to the Amarok pickup.
Other than automobiles, it additionally makes components resembling cylinder heads and inlet manifolds.
KASSEL
A part of the Volkswagen group since 1958, the Kassel plant is VW’s greatest elements plant worldwide and produces greater than 4 million handbook and automated transmissions a yr.
The plant is the most important employer in northern Hesse, Volkswagen says, using round 16,500 individuals. The overall inhabitants of Kassel is round 200,000.
The elements produced in Kassel are used within the core VW model, in addition to in Volkswagen Industrial Autos, SEAT, Audi, ŠKODA, Porsche and Lamborghini automobiles.
SALZGITTER
Opened in 1970 for the manufacturing of VW’s K70 mannequin, the manufacturing unit in Salzgitter employed round 7,500 employees as of 2023, in a metropolis of slightly over 100,000 individuals.
It now manufactures engine variants in addition to elements for electrical automobiles, and Volkswagen introduced a 2 billion euro ($2.21 billion) funding in 2021 to remodel the primary engine plant to the primary battery cell plant for the group.
WOLFSBURG
The huge plant in Wolfsburg, Decrease Saxony is on the coronary heart of the group’s manufacturing and is Volkswagen’s headquarters.
VW says the plant, which covers an space across the similar dimension as 910 soccer pitches, employs roughly 70,000 individuals.
Established in 1938, shortly after the corporate was based underneath the Nazis, it produced practically half one million automobiles in 2023, together with the VW Golf.
($1 = 0.9045 euros)
