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Volkswagen Plans 30,000 Job Cuts Worldwide (bbc.com)

Posted by msmash on from the job-cuts dept.

Volkswagen has announced plans to cut 30,000 jobs worldwide with about 23,000 of the losses borne in Germany. From a report on BBC:VW, still dealing with the aftermath of the emissions-cheating scandal, aims to rejuvenate its core brand, and develop new electric and self-driving cars. VW says it will create 9,000 jobs as part of investments in new products. The cuts should bring annual savings of $3.92bn by 2020. VW and unions have been hammering out a plan to revive its fortunes since June. Volkswagen chief executive, Matthias Mueller, said it was "the biggest modernisation programme in the history of the group's core brand." "The VW brand needs a real shake-up and that is exactly what the future pact has turned out to be," he added. The car giant -- which employs 610,000 people in 31 countries -- wants to increase the brand's profit margin from 2% to 4% and to do this it will need to improve productivity at its German plants by 25%.

47 of 82 comments (clear)

  1. Free Union Busting by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    is what I'm guessing this is. Notice there's a lot of talk about shaking up the brand and very little about sales figures dropping. Nobody really cared much about this scandal except the shareholders who are gonna see VW's cash reserves (slightly) eaten into.

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    1. Re:Free Union Busting by JoeyRox · · Score: 1

      "Volkswagen sales plunge on emissions scandal"

      http://money.cnn.com/2015/11/13/news/companies/volkswagen-sales-emission-scandal/

    2. Re:Free Union Busting by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

      Counter point; the U.S. is filled to the brim with nobodies, and we as a group enjoy using breathable air. So what? Try living in Peking, if breathing is a trivial issue. As for VW's stupid dumb ass engineers; well, somebody at the top said, "ya, this work around is OK."

    3. Re:Free Union Busting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      With the possible exception of Daimler, who merely sold cars with cheating engines bought from Renault-Nissan, I am not aware of a volume car manufacturer that hasn't been caught cheating emissions or is under very serious suspicion of doing so since the VW scandal broke.

      VW acknowledged the issue, suspended everyone who could have had something to do with it, started a recall programme and it currently produces the diesel cars with the lowest NOx emissions in practice. None of the other manfucturers have even admitted that they are or were cheating, even though some are right now delivering cars producing more NOx on the road than the VW EA189 even though they are officially meeting Euro 6 on the test bench. Some, like GM, which already had a long history of cheating emissions, have even tried to cover up their cheats.

    4. Re:Free Union Busting by lgw · · Score: 1

      Yet Volkswagen Group has sold more cars in the first ten months of 2016 than they did in the first ten months of 2015.

      Volkswagon Group owns many car brands. Each is more-or-less its own company that has to justify its existence on that basis.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    5. Re: Free Union Busting by LinuxLuver · · Score: 1

      You're forgetting the US$14 billion penalty?

      --
      Only boring people are ever bored.
  2. Employees by lazarus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's always the employees (and their families) who end up suffering for poor management decisions.

    Cheat. Get Caught. Pay fines. Lay off Employees.

    --
    I am not interested in articles about life extension advancements.
    1. Re:Employees by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      I'm sure the top managers have lost a few million off their annual bonus, and their shares have dropped precipitously too.

      Still, you can't help but wonder if whichever manager(s) were responsible for this feel any remorse towards those losing their jobs.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    2. Re:Employees by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      You don't need fines for that. Lots of managers can make employees suffer by means of poor decisions even when no fines are involved.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    3. Re:Employees by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Have you read, you know, the actual article? Plan developed with, and agreed by, the labour union. No force lay-offs, but rather voluntary early retirement.

      There's more positive in this whole story than negative, yet people must still rant about it.

    4. Re:Employees by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

      It would be interesting to see how VW treats its fellow German employees.

    5. Re:Employees by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      What's that "fellow" you're talking about? Corporations know no nationalities, unless of course certain nations offer them kickbacks.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    6. Re:Employees by lazarus · · Score: 1

      Have you read, you know, the actual article?

      You must be new here.

      --
      I am not interested in articles about life extension advancements.
    7. Re:Employees by bickerdyke · · Score: 2

      I would more than happily accept the millions that they still get as regular salary without bonus.

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      bickerdyke
    8. Re:Employees by lgw · · Score: 1

      "Managers" don't get millions in salary anywhere. The word you want is "executives", and even then it's very rare for anyone to have more than a million in salary. Heck, it's very rare for anyone beyond the CEO and CFO to make more than a million in total comp.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    9. Re:Employees by The-Ixian · · Score: 1

      You forgot the last step: Cut their taxes because businesses pay too much.

      --
      My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
    10. Re:Employees by The-Ixian · · Score: 1

      Wow, 30,000 unessential employees? Now that sounds like a company with some overhead...

      --
      My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
    11. Re:Employees by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      It's always the employees (and their families) who end up suffering for poor management decisions.

      A company doesn't get into this scenario with poor decisions. It gets into this scenario through a bad corporate culture. Employees are a part of that culture.

    12. Re:Employees by hey! · · Score: 1

      Except that bonuses are paid out even when the CEO presides over a disaster. Martin Winterkorn got 6.5 million dollars in performance bonuses for his last year, even though VW stock went from $253/share to $92. That's on top of a "base" salary of $1.5 million.

      Citigroup paid out $5.3 billion in "performance bonuses" in 2008, the same year the federal government had to bail them out because the company at $39 billion dollars in sub-prime mortgage backed securities that nobody knew the exact value of, and the same year their stock value went from $435/share to $35/share. Since the banking sector has recovered -- I have bank stocks which tanked in 2009 but were back to their pre-crisis value by 2010, but Citigroup has never recovered it's share price; it hasn't gone up over $60 in the eight years since, but they continue to pay out massive "performance bonuses" every year, rain or shine.

      The idea that "performance bonuses" have anything to do with accountability for results is ludicrous. They have everything to do with that these people are powerful enough to write the rules for themselves.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    13. Re:Employees by lgw · · Score: 1

      "Performance bonus" is nominally a different thing than "salary", though of course both get paid no matter what. Winterkorn is an executive, not a manager. An since he was chairman of the board and thus could set his own compensation, it's hardly surprising he decided he was worth that much even as a failure.

      Citigroup paid out $5.3 billion in "performance bonuses" in 2008, the same year the federal government had to bail them out because the company at $39 billion dollars in sub-prime mortgage backed securities

      The sub-prime bailout were nothing but handing taxpayer money to banking executives. They had no other purpose, and achieved no other goal.

      The idea that "performance bonuses" have anything to do with accountability for results is ludicrous. They have everything to do with that these people are powerful enough to write the rules for themselves.

      Well, yeah, so what kind of idiot would own stock in a financial company?

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    14. Re:Employees by ark1 · · Score: 1

      They have over 600K employees - %5 of overhead/incompetent/irrelevant... is not that much.

    15. Re:Employees by hey! · · Score: 1

      Well, it's one of a number of stocks I own, and has actually done pretty well, returning to its pre-crisis in about a year. So from a financial standpoint it isn't really so idiotic to hold this one stock in my portfolio.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    16. Re:Employees by lgw · · Score: 1

      I bought a lottery scratch-off ticket, and won more than it costs, so from a financial standpoint is was a good bet?

      I guess you could argue that the government is so corrupt that financials will keep their gains, but have their losses shielded by the taxpayer, and so they're a good bet on that basis - but only for too big to fail banks, and only if they don't decide to screw the stockholders along with the taxpayers next time.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  3. New workers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Its a good thing that Germany recently got a whole bunch of educated, civil, and German speaking refugees.

    1. Re:New workers by unixisc · · Score: 2

      If you are referring to the Syrians, what exactly in the news suggests that even a good percentage of them are German speaking? German is not one of the common languages in Syria - French is. If you are not referring to the Syrians, who are you referring to?

    2. Re: New workers by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

      and they have a union as well.

  4. Re:Counterpoint. by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    How do you figure out they weren't needed in the first place? Just because they won't be needed in the future doesn't mean they weren't needed in the past.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  5. Re:Counterpoint. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Too bad your parents didn't use the same logic on you the moment you were born.

  6. Overpriced cars w/ big overheads by unixisc · · Score: 2

    I used to own a Passat years ago. Easily the worst car I ever owned, but it was the wife's pick. Thing about it was that all repairs were expensive, thanks to VW's practice of replacing entire modules if there was just a small thing wrong. Like if your indicator LED on your dashboard stopped working, the entire front panel needed to be replaced.

    It would be one thing to have that on Mercs, Beamers or Porsches, but I just couldn't justify that on a VW

    1. Re:Overpriced cars w/ big overheads by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Yeah - stupid women

    2. Re:Overpriced cars w/ big overheads by The-Ixian · · Score: 1

      Way to throw your wife under the (VW) bus....

      --
      My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
  7. Fake number by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 2

    The company reports 30,000 upcoming, but it'll be much more in the end when the story is forgotten and nobody's watching. The company has implemented a cheating device that reports fake numbers when the press and incestors are watching: they call it the PR Department...

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
    1. Re:Fake number by shortscruffydave · · Score: 1

      and incestors are watching

      Bunch of motherf****rs

    2. Re:Fake number by thomn8r · · Score: 3, Funny

      and incestors are watching

      I assume this refers to the German people.

      They have plants in Arkansas and Alabama

    3. Re:Fake number by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Bavarians, if you want to translate your prejudices to Germany.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    4. Re:Fake number by ausekilis · · Score: 1

      The company reports 30,000 upcoming, but it'll be much more in the end when the story is forgotten and nobody's watching. The company has implemented a cheating device that reports fake numbers when the press and incestors are watching: they call it the PR Department...

      That is the most accurate description of C-level management I have ever seen. Well done.

    5. Re:Fake number by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      The company reports 30,000 upcoming, but it'll be much more in the end when the story is forgotten and nobody's watching.

      Doubt it. That is the opposite of what usually happens. Normally they announce big, looks good for share holders and people watching and then don't actually lay as many people off.

      I worked for a company which recently announced 5000 job cuts. When I asked management about it the answer was, yes, but you've known about this for a long time. We've just re-announced and massaged a number that we have been working with for over a year already.

  8. 9.000 new jobs! by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    Of course, we first have to lay off 23.000, and it goes without saying that those 9.000 will be hired via temp agencies and only if you offer us some kickbacks, else we're going to build those cars in Romania.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  9. I had a Passat as well; same problem by dcavanaugh · · Score: 1

    My Passat was fun to drive, but only on the days when the car actually worked. Unfortunately, there were not enough of those days. Over the course of six months, I spent about $3600 at the dealership on a wide variety of problems. Each time, I thought the car would be OK for a while. And it was -- for about a month. After a while, I realized I was spending about $600/month to drive a 5-year old car. It would be cheaper to buy a new car whose payments are less than $600/month and drive that instead. So I did. I owned several VWs up to that point, but never again.

    1. Re:I had a Passat as well; same problem by HornWumpus · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I don't care what brand of car you own (exception for exotics needing factory service to retain value).

      Never take a car to a dealership for non-warranty work. Never.

      WTF were you thinking?

      If you know nothing about cars, have a friend that does, find you a reasonably honest shop. You'll note that she/he won't even consider the 'stealerships'. Many dealership mechanics are honest, but the whole place _isn't_. It's not (necessarily) the dealership mechanic stealing from you, it's everybody else there...$100+ labor rate for recent 'wyotech' grads...'retail' parts pricing...you literally can't do worse.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    2. Re:I had a Passat as well; same problem by The-Ixian · · Score: 1

      you literally can't do worse

      Well.... you could.... If you don't fix your car then you have a rather large, relatively expensive and utterly worthless piece of junk sitting in your parking space.

      --
      My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
  10. Re:Counterpoint. by HornWumpus · · Score: 3, Funny

    Support 75th trimester abortion rights (for either parent)!

    Make the 18th birthday really special. Today, we can't just kill you on a whim.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  11. Re:Fun times by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 1
    Increasing the percentage of electric cars in the near future is not illegal.

    Well, not till Trump is in the White House, anyway!

    --
    Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
  12. Verify, don't Trust by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    Look, we have three things to consider, that impact VW.

    One, emissions. Verify, don't trust. Random driving by humans in all terrain, with stops and in-city and country separate. Is it as easy as doing in a building? No. But they will game the system. So put a diaper gas bag on that baby.

    Two, electric cars. Battery life in real world applications with different usage in desert, mountains, city, and moderate temp. Again, field tests, not just in buildings.

    Three, for the most part, trust the stats for electrics, hard to gin those up in field tests. But never trust the stats for fossil fuel cars, those they will always try to fake the emissions. And it's not just VW that does that.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  13. Woosh by mpercy · · Score: 1

    Went right over your head...

  14. Re: Counterpoint. by LinuxLuver · · Score: 1

    He'll be a conservative doing what they imagine is thinking. Not hard to spot. You just say dumb stuff like it's true and you mean it.

    --
    Only boring people are ever bored.
  15. Re:Fake number typo by PlaynBass · · Score: 1

    Muvh to do about a silly typo. Vompounded by a lavk of simple proofreading before sending. (v=c) Has led this thread to risk potential accusations of prejudice on several levels, even though locker room humor is apparently back in vogue in the USA.

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    PlaynBass