Friction is mounting between German automaker Porsche and workers at Volkswagen, where employee representatives fear losing their influence if VW is swallowed up by Porsche.
Porsche head Wendelin Wiedeking fired the first shot earlier this month, unveiling his plans to take control of Volkswagen, the German group of which Porsche already owns about 31 percent.
Adding to the tension, he let it be known that if his plans bore fruit, there would be no more “sacred cows” at VW, where employees enjoy advantageous working conditions thanks to collective bargaining agreements.
Porsche finance director Holger Harter this past weekend disclosed in an interview that his company did not intend to include a VW representative on its board of directors if the takeover went ahead.
His comments drew a sharp response from the influential IG Metall trade union as well as from the workers' council at Volkswagen.
Council president Bernd Osterloh then filed a lawsuit aimed at blocking a planned worker participation agreement that would take effect if Porsche raised its stake in VW to more than 50 percent.
Under the proposed arrangement, VW workers would only have three seats on Porsche's supervisory board, equal to the representation by Porsche employees but down from the 10 they currently control at Volkswagen.
That structure is unacceptable to Osterloh, who speaks for 324,000 VW workers. Porsche has a workforce of only 12,000.
He called the plan “a slap in the face” for VW personnel and “a danger to job and production site security.”
Until now VW unions have had to deal with a single company shareholder, the government of the state of Lower Saxony, which has been keen to preserve jobs. At Porsche employment decisions will be determined by profitability.
Osterloh has nonetheless managed to irritate certain segments of the VW workforce. A source close to the matter said he had been aware of Porsche's worker participation scheme but — prior to an about-face — had made no protest.
At Porsche, workers' council head Uwe Huck, a fan of Thai boxing, said in an interview that Osterloh was reacting in a manner that reminded him of certain boxers who “go out of control” when they get hit.
“In this fight, it's no longer a question of employee interests but of power sharing,” he said.
The complaint by VW workers will get a first hearing by the Stuttgart labor court on October 24.
And the European Court of Justice on October 23 is to issue a ruling on the “Volkswagen law,” which prevents any single shareholder from controlling more than 20 percent of the voting rights in Volkswagen.
If the law is overturned, which seems likely, Porsche will be solidly on course to absorb Europe's largest automaker.
