Sindelfingen strike

greek snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com (greek_philosophizer) haute in die Tasten:

Actually there was not much downtime due to a strike. It was a big surprise for the mangement, that not only the workers in Sindelfingen took part at demonstrations, but also the workers in Bremen. Bremen is located in northern germany, and they ave a different contract, so that a Bremen worker earns less than a Sindelfingen worker. Schremmp had demanded cost-cuts of a total amount of 500 Mio. Euro (approx. 600 Mio USD) for the Sindelfingen plant, otherwise the next generation C-class should be assemblied in Bremen and South Africa. There was quite a public uproar about the fact that the same management which demands cost cuts from the workers, had massive raises in their payment over the last years. This fact accelerated a nation-wide discussion about the fair level of manager wages in Germany. German authorities demand from large companies (those which are based on stocks, which are traded at the stock exchange) to voluntarily publish the salary of their managers separately for each person. Up to now these companies only publish the money spent for the whole management. If the companies will not cooperate, the government plans to issue a new law.

The negotiations about the Sindelfingen plant lead to the results that the workers will lose some money and some privileges, and that the management will also voluntarily give away some money (which will not hurt any of them). In return the management promised to have the new C- class manufactured in Sindelfingen again. This is regarded as a victory for Mr. Schremmp and a loss for the workers union.

Plain question: Would you spend 40.000 bucks for a car made in South Africa?

Frank

Frank Kemper wrote: [...]

VW seems to be betting that "German engineered" is more important than "German built." I recently saw a review of the Passat W8 on a TV show that repeatedly used the phrase "German engineered," which seemed to indicate that the car wasn't "German built." Due to problems with my computer at this moment, I can't perform a search to determine where, precisely, the Passat W8 sold in the US is built, but I'm guessing it's in North America somewhere (probably Mexico).

--Paul

Passat W8 sedan: City of Mosel in Saxony, Germany Passat W8 station wagon: City of Emden in Lower Saxony, Germany

Both were _exclusively_ built there

The all-new Passat to be presented next year will have no more W8 engines so production of both the W8 Passats has been stopped in summer (with production plant holidays).

Juergen

The workers in Sindelfingen are all Turkish... :-)

DAS