Volkswagen

On September 1, workers at the Volkswagen-Audi factory in the city of Curitiba began a one-week strike. Workers at the Volvo and Renault/Nissan plants in the same town also went on strike on the same day.

During that week, 24-hour strikes occurred at Ford, General Motors, Toyota, Mercedes Benz and Scania in cities in the interior of Sao Paulo state.

Workers began their strike on Tuesday in support of demands for wage increases to deal with rising inflation. Three Volkswagen, Nissan, and Renault owned plants in the southern state of Parana have been affected, causing a production loss of about 6,600 vehicles.

GAINING AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE FROM ŠKODA´S PROFIT!

Previously the plan had met with wildcat strikes and demonstrations occured against closure (see picture, above).

Businessweek.com reported the acceptance of the deal "as a necessary move to keep the slimmed-down factory open and guarantee employment."

Workers have blockaded the factory, and up to 25,000 people have been involved in protest marches

Of the 4,000 facing redundancy only 400 will be able to take early retirement, leaving the rest of the employees stranded in an area already crippled by production. Union bosses have estimated a further 6,000 job losses with local suppliers.

30 March: Some 12,000 of the 21,000 employees at Skoda walked off the job for an hour on the 30th of March, putting the company 240 cars under its daily quota of about 2,000.

Analysis of wage policies at VW in Germany.

Article analysing new wage structures for 5,000 new manufacturing jobs at Volkswagen in Germany.

Extensive background information and analysis, and an account of a wildcat strike of Opel/GM car workers in Germany.

Short article about the 2000 South African Volkswagen workers' strike.

Account of a small but significant strike at a Skoda (owned by Volkswagen) factory in the Czech Republic.

The following article was written by comrades from the Czech Republic. Following their analysis of the strike at Skoda they investigated the development of the car industry in the Czech Republic more thoroughly, concentrating on Škoda/Volkswagen, TPCA (Toyota Peugeot Citroën Automobile) and the suppliers.

The 1,800 layoffs are seen as the first wave of cuts at the 12,000-worker Sao Bernardo do Campo car plant. Workers will decide on a day-by-day basis the course of the strike. The main demand is guarantees of job security, which runs counter to bosses plans. The cuts are due to be made effective in November.