Volkswagen Faces Showdown as Up to 100,000 Jobs Hang in Balance
Veröffentlicht: 30.06.2026 um 19:04 Uhr, Redaktion boerse-global.de
The turmoil in Germany's automotive sector is spreading well beyond Volkswagen. Bosch, the country's largest automotive supplier, plans to cut more than 12,000 jobs worldwide, over 6,000 of them in Germany. Its operating profit slumped by a third to 3.2 billion euros in 2024, and the company is targeting a return of 7 percent by 2027. Smaller firms are also feeling the squeeze: component maker Westfalen-Mobil is trimming its core workforce from roughly 300 to around 200 employees and launching a transfer company on July 1 to cushion the social impact.
At the heart of the storm stands Volkswagen itself. Management is considering closing four German plants — in Hanover, Zwickau, Emden and Neckarsulm — and the Kassel-Baunatal facility with its 15,000 workers is also seen as vulnerable. Up to 100,000 jobs could disappear worldwide, according to internal assessments. The company intends to slash investments by about 15 percent to roughly 130 billion euros, while forecasting an operating profit of 8.9 billion euros for 2025 — a sharp deterioration.
The atmosphere between VW's board and its works council has become toxic. Labour representatives say they have submitted a detailed package of responses but received no concrete figures on the planned job cuts. Both IG Metall and the works council have vowed determined resistance. CEO Oliver Blume has signaled that if the savings package is blocked, he is prepared to bypass the supervisory board altogether. An extraordinary general meeting could push the measures through against the wishes of employee representatives and of Lower Saxony, the state that is VW's second-largest shareholder and opposes plant closures.
All eyes are now on the supervisory board meeting scheduled for July 9. That session is set to discuss the company's "Zielbild 2030" — a strategic blueprint that could determine the future of entire factories and tens of thousands of jobs. The bitterness of the negotiations is widely described as unprecedented in the industry. While management insists on higher margins and cost discipline, union leaders are demanding long-term site guarantees and full transparency before any decisions are made.
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