Autoindustrie: VW-Kompromiss gescheitert – Arbeitnehmer prüfen Klage bei möglicher Hauptversammlung

Volkswagen is facing an embarrassment as a compromise attempt in the dispute over chief executive Oliver Blume's radical cost-cutting plan has failed. Several people familiar with the situation say the parties wanted to find a compromise before the supervisory board meeting. Now the management is preparing for the extraordinary general meeting scheduled for Friday, where there will be no agreement on the planned cost-cutting package and the management will have to resort to other means.

Volkswagen declined to comment when asked. According to Trade publication information, the Blume team is now preparing for the possibility that shareholders will vote on the cost-cutting package at an extraordinary general meeting, which has never happened in German business history. The wheels are now turning towards each other, says an insider from the group's environment.

On Monday and Tuesday, representatives of Lower Saxony and the Volkswagen group engaged in late-night negotiations to find a minimum consensus. However, the fronts remain hardened. No further talks are planned until the Audi supervisory board meeting, where the possible extent of the cost-cutting measures for the VW subsidiary will be presented.

The Thursday meeting of the VW supervisory board's presidium with the key union and employer representatives takes place before the extraordinary shareholders' meeting on Friday. Without an agreement at the meeting itself, a spiral of escalation could be set in motion. The extraordinary shareholder meeting could still come in the fall.

"This approach is legally covered," claims the camp demanding a hard cost-cutting path. In fact, the German Securities Act gives the management in Section 111 the opportunity to call an extraordinary general meeting if the supervisory board refuses to approve the management's plans. The law stipulates that the company must invite the meeting at least 30 days in advance and that VW lawyers need several weeks of preparation time to formulate a legally sound invitation.

While companies usually try to avoid the extra-ordinary general meeting because it is an enormous effort, it is possible according to the law, but it would lead to a break between the management, supervisory board, and workers in the middle of the worst Volkswagen crisis in decades. Various camps are not willing to compromise. At the center of the conflict is the future and cost-cutting package proposed by Blume.

The manager wants to make Europe's largest car maker more efficient. Thousands of jobs and four factories in Germany are up for grabs, including the VW plants in Hannover, Zwickau, and Emden, and the Audi plant in Neckarsulm. The union protests against the cuts and refers to the billion-euro cost-cutting program for 2024, under which around 50,000 positions are already being downsized.

At the supervisory board meeting in July, the board rejected the future plan. Just before the meeting on Friday, a last-minute agreement is still possible. The supervisory board could also postpone the meeting. "We are definitely not heading for the end of the negotiations at VW if we do not reach an agreement on September 4th," says someone from the Lower Saxony minister-president's office (SPD).

However, for an agreement, the different camps would have to be willing to compromise. However, little indication of this has been seen so far. The management claims that the IG Metall union has refused to scale back its own demands, while the union refuses to bring forward any proposals of its own. The Lower Saxony government, according to the company's assessment, has moved away from its initially constructive negotiating position and has increasingly taken on the union's position, which is primarily defined by operations chief Daniela Cavallo and IG Metall chief Christiane Benner.

The company also accuses the government and union of wanting to speak on decisions that actually fall within the management's sphere of competence. On the other side, IG Metall accuses the company of showing no willingness to compromise and pursuing unrealistic return targets. And the government tries to mediate but sees no closed supervisory board room on the company's part in light of the cost-cutting plans.

"Volkswagen lights up like a Christmas tree" According to Trade publication information, there are three competing draft decisions for Friday – from the management, the workforce side, and the government. The management draft, it is reported from within the company environment, is expected to contain the same demands as the one rejected in July.

This leads to a renewed rejection in the supervisory board. Because the 20-member board, with the double voting right of supervisory board chairman Hans Dieter Pötsch, only has ten votes. For factory closures, the supervisory act of 1960, which dates back to when VW was privatized, grants Lower Saxony, which holds 20 percent of VW, a veto in key decisions.

The management and the shareholder camp on the supervisory board, led by Porsche and Piech families, threaten to call an extraordinary shareholders'