Show your teeth before the election: exhibition match in Wolfsburg

Show your teeth before choosing
Exhibition fight in Wolfsburg

A comment by Ulrich Reitz

The VW employee representatives, who used to be so powerful, once again criticize CEO Herbert Diess. The attack is reminiscent of a drama. It has long been known that the main plant in Wolfsburg has to become more profitable.

Fictional battles have no winners – it’s the same in Wolfsburg. Even if influential Volkswagen works councils pull their hands off CEO Herbert Diess and express their distrust – it doesn’t change that. The attacks that the employee representatives are currently riding against Diess are based on the fear of sinking into their own insignificance. It is an election campaign in Wolfsburg. Works council elections are due next spring. A whole series of committed employee representatives wants to dispute the attention of the new works council boss Daniela Cavallo. Showing one’s teeth is part of the election program.

The injustice of the works councils and IG Metall representatives is of course not surprising: after all, CEO Diess puts his finger in the deepest wound when he criticizes the productivity of the Wolfsburg parent plant as too low and the group as too cumbersome – compared to competitors such as Tesla, for example . The employee representatives are pissed off. Especially because Diess’s relentless diagnosis is a new style in Wolfsburg. So far, VW has acted according to the motto: The board of directors has a free hand – for example for investments abroad. But the Wolfsburg parent plant will not be tackled, please.

It went well for a long time. Before the pandemic, the group had made a net profit of 14 billion euros. And it looked as if Volkswagen could even outperform this year. But then came the slump in sales in China and the semiconductor crisis. Because too few electronic components could be procured, quite a few lines had to be shut down. Problems that other manufacturers are also struggling with. And which for many could not have been foreseen. Now they are there. And Diess has to serve as a bogeyman.

This transfer would not be advisable

Yes, this is considered a hot spur. One who addresses problems straightforwardly. And who can provoke. Like the meeting with the Group’s top managers a few days ago in Alpbach, Austria. As a surprise guest, the VW boss, who is trying to push the production of electric cars with verve, had one of his biggest electric car competitors, of all things, switched on via video: Tesla founder Elon Musk. Quite a few top executives rubbed their eyes in amazement. Some said they felt like they were being led.

With such actions, Diess hits the right note. One that they understand in Wolfsburg. With too many niceties, no one has ever had sustained success at the top of the group. Roaring and screaming have always been part of the Mittelland Canal.

It is hardly to be expected that the VW supervisory board will put the controversial head of the company, whose contract is still four years, all too quickly cold. Nor would it be advisable. Europe’s largest automaker is in the midst of the greatest transformation in its history. There would be no place for a compliant corporate leader who is too sympathetic. You need someone who speaks uncomfortable truths and pushes for solutions quickly. This is one of those.

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