On June 11, Reuters reported that CEO Oliver Blume is expected to announce at the upcoming annual shareholders' meeting on June 18 that the company will cut 19,000 jobs in Germany by the end of this year.
According to a draft of Blume's speech obtained by Reuters, Volkswagen has reached a binding agreement with labor representatives to reduce over 28,000 jobs in Germany by 2030.
Blume will also explain that Volkswagen has already achieved a cost reduction of more than 20% at its German plants by 2025.
This workforce reduction is part of a restructuring agreement Volkswagen signed with labor unions and the workers' council at the end of last year. At that time, the company committed to reducing over 35,000 jobs in its German operations in a socially responsible manner by 2030, while also cutting production capacity at its German plants by 734,000 units.
Volkswagen expects to achieve annual cost savings of over 15 billion euros through these measures. The agreement with labor representatives also includes provisions to avoid plant closures and layoffs in Germany until 2030.
The company has faced pressure to cut costs due to rising expenses related to the transition to electric vehicles, increased competition from Chinese manufacturers, a slowdown in European demand, and high production costs in Germany.
* This article has been translated by AI.
Copyright ⓒ Aju Press All rights reserved.