Labor News & Commentary October 29, 2024 Fifth Circuit allows the pilots union's lawsuit against Southwest Airlines...

https://onlabor.org/october-29-2024/

By Sunah Chang

Sunah Chang is a student at Harvard Law School.

In today’s news and commentary: Volkswagen reveals plans to shut down multiple factories in Germany, the Fifth Circuit allows the pilots union’s lawsuit against Southwest Airlines to proceed, and USA Today features the role of union workers in the upcoming presidential election.

Volkswagen has announced plans to shut down at least three factories in Germany and lay off thousands of German auto workers. The company also plans to reduce pay across the board by 10% and freeze wages in 2025 and 2026. The widespread layoffs and pay cuts come as an attempt to alleviate the financial woes of the company, which has faced weak sales and a shaky transition to electric vehicles. If the company carries out its plan of shutting down the factories, it would mark the first time that Volkswagen has closed a German factory during the company’s 87-year history.

Workers have mobilized to express their opposition to the company’s plans. Daniela Cavallo, who leads the works council representing the company’s employees in Germany, warned that the company’s restructuring plan was a “starvation, a weakening in installments” for workers. The announcement also comes in the midst of the company’s ongoing wage negotiations with the IG Metall union, a union that represents most of Volkswagen’s German workers. Thorsten Gröger, lead negotiator of the union, stated that Volkswagen’s restructuring plans “stab in the heart of the hard working VW workforce.”

FULL story at link above.