Audi employees at parent Volkswagen’s Brussels plant have lashed out at their bosses by stealing 200 keys, saying completed cars wouldn’t leave the factory until there was clarity over their futures.
The Brussels Audi plant was earmarked for potential closure in July as Volkswagen attempts to undergo a €10 billion cost-cutting drive, which includes a 20% cut in administrative personnel costs.
Last week, Volkswagen said it didn’t intend to reassign a new model to its Brussels plant after operations stalled in July amid a slowdown in demand for its Audi Q8 e-tron models, leaving the future of more than 3,000 employees in doubt.
The plant was due to resume partial production last Wednesday after weeks of staff leave and closures. However, news that Volkswagen wouldn’t assign a new model led workers to strike.
After talks between union reps and bosses broke down late last week, the union said it was confiscating the keys to between 200 and 300 completed and partially completed cars in the Audi plant.
The union reps said the keys were being kept in a safe place, and they wouldn’t leave the factory until there was clarity over workers’ futures.
Over the weekend, Brussels media reported that Audi intended to file a lawsuit if the keys weren’t returned, giving the union a Monday noon deadline.
“We understand that people are worried and react emotionally. We call on all staff to exercise common sense,” an Audi Brussels spokesperson said earlier this week.
While a deadlock was still in place by Audi’s initial deadline, the union reportedly signaled its intent to return the keys last evening, though they were hindered by the factory being closed. Audi said it was organizing alternative arrangements for the keys’ return.
A representative for Audi Brussels didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Volkswagen CEO Oliver Blume is locked in a tussle with what he sees as a bloated workforce protected by extensive labor agreements. Blume says Volkswagen can’t “continue as we were” in the face of falling demand and rising competition.
The carmaker has angered its powerful German works council by announcing plans to scrap a 30-year-old employment agreement that guaranteed jobs.
Volkswagen also said it was considering plant closures in Germany, where it employs around 300,000 people; these German closures would be the first in the company’s 87-year history.
“Fewer cars are being sold in Europe, and new competitors from Asia are pushing aggressively into the market,” Blume told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper. “The cake has got smaller, and we have more guests at the table.”
Bild reported that Volkswagen was losing €1 billion a year as a result of staff absences. The carmaker said that on average 10% of its workforce was missing from work at a time, dwarfing its target rate of 4% absences.
Volkswagen has been forced to pay huge compensation packages to redundant employees as part of a December agreement to carry out headcount reductions in a “socially conscious” manner.
The German publication Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung reported that the carmaker was paying some staff up to €450,000 in severance agreements while reducing the minimum age at which employees could be offered severance packages.