Volkswagen Group (XETRA:VOW) workers have offered to forego bonuses for the next two years in an effort to stop the car maker from shutting three plants in Germany as part of an unprecedented cost-cutting move.
VW wants to save €1.5 billion in costs but unions have said it is more like €17bn and that if it presses ahead with the plans as they stand it will face a 'historic battle'.
Talks between management and the IG Metall union are scheduled to resume tomorrow, but the company is not ruling out plant closures even with the union’s offer.
Thorsten Groeger, IG Metall's chief negotiator said if the closures go ahead VW would face a battle "The likes of which this republic has not seen for decades".
Weak demand in Europe and China, high costs, and Germany's crippling bureaucracy have seen all of Germany’s much-vaunted car industry enter crisis mode in the past six months.
"The Group's finances are not yet in the red like they were in crises in the 1970s and 1990s," Groeger added. "We can see room to take action and make investments to correct the expensive mistakes of the past."
If no deal is agreed, strikes at the majority of the carmaker's German sites are slated to start from 1 December