Volkswagen’s premium unit Audi intends to cut thousands of jobs to fund a costly shift to electric vehicles, but talks with powerful labor spokespersons have hit a logjam, two sources knowledgeable with the matter informed Reuters.
Volkswagen tapped ex-BMW executive Markus Duesmann to take the helm at Audi from April for 2020 after the Audi lost key engineering know-how and influence following the 2015 diesel-cheating scandal.
Weekly magazine Der Spiegel on Friday stated Audi is pushing for 4,000 to 5,000 positions to be removed in negotiations, that are led by Audi’s interim boss Bram Schot.
Audi, which has a 61,000 dedicated workforce in Germany, refused to comment, as did its works council.
A considerable point is the demand by organized labor to increase an existing moratorium on forced redundancies from 2025 until 2030, the sources stated.
