Union delegates and executives at Volkswagen’s giant assembly complex in Mexico will resume talks today in a bid to agree the terms of an annual contract for hourly workers, writes Stephen Downer.
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Six days of negotiations last week failed to produce a deal, Volkswagen de Mexico affirmed in a statement early on Sunday.
However, it added that the union, which had threatened to call its members out on strike last Saturday, had agreed to postpone such action until September 3.
The company stressed that the union had failed to make a counter proposal to its offer of a 3.5% wage improvement and no increase in employee benefits.
It added that “some details” on ways of increasing competitiveness and productivity at the complex, which is the only plant in the world assembling the New Beetle, still had to be worked out.
The syndicate, the Independent Union of Volkswagen Workers (SITIAVW), represents about 75% of the 16,000 employees at the complex in Puebla, 60 miles south east of Mexico City.
Last year its members forced the company to shut down assembly for 19 days before accepting a 10.2% wage increase plus additional benefits of 4.5%, pushing their monthly take-home pay to an average of $US750.
The strike cost Volkswagen 1,520 vehicles per day in lost output.
