After two and a half long days of talks, Volkswagen and the IG Metall union appear to be locked in their harsh conflict, according to dpa-AFX.
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IG Metall chief negotiator, Hartmut Meine and VW human resources director Horst Neumann, have scheduled a press conference this morning (Friday, 29 September), but they are expected to announce that talks will continue next week.
The talks began on Wednesday and resumed on Thursday, when they lasted 21 hours, said dpa-AFX.
On Wednesday, the news agency added, there was some optimism that the two parties were coming closer to reaching some kind of agreement.
Volkswagen’s key demand is that workers return to a 35-hour week, up from the current 28.8-hour week, for no additional pay.
In return the trade union wants Volkswagen to make some firm commitments to invest in the six west German plants and assign major models to Wolfsburg. In addition it appears to be looking for some kind of profit share for the future.
In February this year, Volkswagen CEO Bernd Pischetsrieder said that Volkswagen needed to reduce its headcount by at least 20,000 jobs in Germany. This should mainly be possible through voluntary measures.
Since February around 4,000 jobs have gone.
