Volkswagen aims to cancel a no-layoffs pledge and won't rule out closing plants in Germany

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Germany's Volkswagen says auto industry headwinds mean it can't rule out plant closings in its home country - and must drop a longstanding job protection pledge in force since 1994 that would have barred layoffs through 2029.

“The European automotive industry is in a very demanding and serious situation," Oliver Blume, Volkswagen Group CEO, said in a statement Monday.

He cited new competitors entering the European markets, Germany's deteriorating position as a manufacturing location and the need to “act decisively.”

Thomas Schaefer, the CEO of the Volkswagen Passenger Cars division, said efforts to reduce costs were “yielding results” but that the “headwinds have become significantly stronger.”

European automakers are facing increased competition from inexpensive Chinese electric cars. The company's half-year results indicate it will not achieve its target for 10 billion euros in costs savings by 2026, the company said.

The discussion around closures and layoffs is for the company's core Volkswagen brand. The core brand saw operating earnings sag to 966 million euros ($1.1 billion) from 1.64 billion euros in the year-earlier period.

The group also includes luxury makes Audi and Porsche, which have higher profit margins than the mass-market vehicles made by Volkswagen, as well as SEAT and Skoda.

The company has sought to cut costs through early retirements and buyouts that avoid forced layoffs, but is now saying those measures may not be enough. The additional measures affecting plants or job guarantees would be negotiated with worker representatives.

A plant closing would be the first since its U.S. plant in Westmoreland, Pennsylvania closed in 1988, according to the dpa news agency.

Union officials and worker representatives attacked the idea of closings or layoffs. Management's approach is “not only shortsighted, but dangerous, as it risks destroying the heart of Volkswagen,” Thorsten Groeger, chief negotiator with VW for the IG Metall industrial union, said on the union's website.

Top employee representative Daniela Cavallo said that “management has failed... The consequence is an attack on our employees, our locations and our labor agreements. There will be no plant closings with us.”

The governor of Germany's Lower Saxony region, Stephan Weil, who sits on the company's board of directors, agreed the company needed to take action but called on Volkswagen to avoid plant closings by relying on alternative ways to reduce costs: “The state government will pay particularly close attention to that,” he said in a statement reported by the dpa news agency.