The rift between Volkswagen AG’s workers and executives deepened after powerful labor leaders said they lost faith in management of its main car brand and demanded job protections amid the towering cost of the carmaker’s cheating on emissions.
In a letter published on labor union IG Metall’s website, union leaders attacked management of the namesake passenger-car brand for trying to use the scandal to push through deep cutbacks and called for a comprehensive agreement to safeguard German workers and factories. The strongly-worded letter drew a diplomatic response from Volkswagen, which offered to start negotiations.
“We have the impression that the diesel scandal is being used as a back door to undertake personnel cuts that wouldn’t have been on the agenda a few months ago,” Bernd Osterloh, the works council chief and a supervisory board member, said in the letter. “The brand’s management board lacks reliability.”
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