IG Metall Demands Volkswagen Honor 2024 Labor Deal

Germany’s IG Metall union is escalating its confrontation with Volkswagen and the wider auto industry over restructuring plans, job cuts and potential rollbacks of worker protections. The union plans protests at more than 200 locations on Sept. 21, seeking to mobilize more than 100,000 people against layoffs, threatened plant closures and efforts to weaken the 35-hour workweek. At Volkswagen, members have invoked a legal provision in the labor agreement reached in 2024, demanding management reaffirm commitments that helped prevent immediate plant closures while requiring layoffs and wage concessions. The move responds to plans that could roughly double Volkswagen’s job cuts to about 100,000 and sharply reduce production, including possible closures at four plants. Management has not commented, while the works council says uncertainty cannot continue; labor leaders also blame Chinese competition, tariffs and high production costs for the industry’s crisis and are calling for stronger government protections. Existing agreements limit IG Metall’s ability to strike until the end of 2026, according to one report.