WSJ: VW Seeks More Work for Less Pay

[question everything]

VW Seeks More Work for Less Pay

As Jobs Figure in German Election CEO's Warnings Add To Pervasive Job Fears -- Key Factor in Sunday Vote

By STEPHEN POWER
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
September 14, 2005; Page A2

With four days until a German national election that has become a referendum on unemployment and labor rules, the chief executive of the country's biggest auto maker, Volkswagen AG, is warning his workers that they increasingly will have to work longer hours for less pay, and that no company can afford to promise it won't lay off workers.

The comments by Volkswagen Chief Executive Bernd Pischetsrieder, in an interview on the sidelines of the Frankfurt auto show, reflect a growing recognition among German corporations that they must plow ahead with painful restructuring measures, often involving job cuts, rather than depend on Germany's government to enact changes to the country's employment laws. Those laws generally make it difficult for businesses to fire workers.

(snip)

VW's warnings could add to the pervasive job insecurity in Germany that voters say is their No. 1 political issue in the run-up to Sunday's voting. Debate in the final week of the national campaign has returned to Germany's 11.4% unemployment rate, in place of arguments over taxes that dominated headlines for the past two weeks. That could present difficulties for the incumbent, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, whose Achilles' heel is the rise of unemployment on his watch.

(snip)

--Marcus Walker contributed to this article.

Write to Stephen Power at [e-mail]

URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112665533715739852,00.html (subscription)

[necso]

1. Nice timing. /nt

[Trillo]

2. So, is the CEO stepping up to the plate and slashing his

compensation by, let's pick a figure out of the sky, 1000%?

[ReadTomPaine]

3. Similar recent discussion...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1775442

Take note of Post 6 in that thread. Interesting.

[Kellanved]

4. funny that

"the rise of unemployment on his watch"

Unemployment stagnated under Schroeder, it didn't rise.