“We have to restructure our company together. The situation is serious,” said the negotiator of the car manufacturer, Arne Meiswinkel, who advocated finding viable solutions, in light of the company’s decision to toughen its austerity program.

Meanwhile, the metal sector union IG Metall reiterated its rejection of forced layoffs and plant closures, and demanded a seven percent salary increase for the 120 thousand Volkswagen employees in six production centers in the west of the country, in light of a current agreement.

Different rules apply at the Volkswagen plant in Saxony (east), but the company also cancelled the job security agreement on Tuesday.

IG Metall’s chief negotiator, Thorsten Gröger, said that they were waiting for concrete answers and only then would it be possible to start serious negotiations.

According to the chairwoman of the Volkswagen works council, Daniela Cavallo, the equal importance of job security and profitability is not negotiable.

Of course, she said, we currently have serious problems on the profitability side; but these “cannot be solved by using plant closures as a threat” or “by launching a large-scale attack on collective agreements.”

For the unionists, this is only the beginning of a dispute that “will be very serious”, which could lead to possible strikes from December 1.

“If necessary, tens of thousands of people will stand in front of the factory gates and in the streets of Volkswagen headquarters,” Cavallo said in the city of Hanover before the start of the joint meeting.

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