Volkswagen boss is trying to relieve employees of worries about their jobs

In the struggle to change the pace of the transformation, Volkswagen boss Herbert Diess is trying to relieve employees of worries about their jobs. "Fear is a bad advisor. Nobody should be afraid," he said in a video interview published in the Wolfsburg company's employee portal. "We are a social enterprise, we have declared job security until 2029." However, Volkswagen has to face competition from the US electric car manufacturer Tesla, which is building a new factory 200 kilometers from Wolfsburg in Grünheide near Berlin. Diess emphasized that there was no plan to cut 30,000 jobs. "We are discussing and speaking with the works council about a future plan for Wolfsburg. What does Wolfsburg have to look like in 2030, 2035 so that it is future-proof?" It is not primarily about job cuts, but about competitiveness in the new world. "Some old jobs" would certainly be lost in the process. Diess was confident that the main plant in Wolfsburg - employees and managers - would be able to cope with the change. A jolt is necessary for this.