Neil Winton has covered the European Auto industry in general and electric cars in particular for Forbes for 11 years. He is based in the U.K. and publishes WintonsWorld.com. Winton was a reporter and editor at Reuters for 33 years. His Reuters assignments included New York and Brussels.
wants to close factories in Germany to bring production in line with sales, but union strength means this will be difficult to achieve and the company may have to at least concede a 4-day work week.
In Germany, union power is incorporated into corporate governance. This is particularly strong at Volkswagen, where unions have half the seats on the supervisory board, and with the help of politicians in its home state and shareholder Lower Saxony, a virtual veto on company policy. VW faces another major hurdle in 2025. It is seen as the most vulnerable to tightening EU CO2 rules which seek to force manufacturers to keep raising the proportion of EV sales compared with ICE ones. Failure incurs swingeing fines, and the spotlight is on VW, according to investment bank UBS
“There is scope for consolidation but looking at the cost of the proposed closure of Brussels with 3,000 workers of about €1.2 billion , the closure costs for larger plants like Emden or Hannover would run to €2.5 billion to €4 billion on our estimates. Aside from resistance from the Works Council and union, we would expect the State of Lower Saxony would oppose such a move,” HSBC Global Research said.
Germany Toyota Oliver Blume HSBC Global Research UBS Reuters Restructuring Lower Saxony Audi
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