Friday 23 April 2021
“That always appealed to me”
VW works council chief changes sides
End of an era: after almost 16 years as Germany’s most powerful VW works council, Bernd Osterloh is moving to the employers’ side. As expected, he will be appointed to the Traton HR department. His successor once started as an office clerk in the group – and is now likely to join the board.
With the words “Do it well!” Bernd Osterloh, the head of the works council for many years, says goodbye to the workforce – it is the last working day after 44 years at VW and almost 16 years at the head of the works council. “I know this is surprising,” writes the powerful employee representative, also a member of the board of directors of Germany’s largest industrial group. He is followed by Daniela Cavallo. However, the 64-year-old is not saying goodbye entirely: On May 1, he will be the head of personnel at VW commercial vehicle holding Traton in Munich. Similar offers have been made before, so far Osterloh had always turned it down.
He’s settling down for three more years at Traton, says Osterloh, and spoke of the appeal of the new job. His departure is already connected to the works council elections at VW in the coming year. “If I didn’t go now, I would be on the candidate list again,” he said. In addition, Traton must fill the position of Labor Director, which has been vacant since mid-2020, as soon as possible – hence the specific offer from Bavaria.
From office clerk to board
The 46-year-old Cavallo is to replace him. She has often performed together with him recently, is considered quieter, but tactically adept and networked. According to the works council, Cavallo Osterloh should exercise his mandate on the board of directors “as soon as possible”. The daughter of an Italian guest worker started at VW as an office clerk, qualified as a business economist and took part in the workforce at an early age. She has been on the works council since 2002, and at the beginning of 2019 she became Osterloh’s deputy.
The 46-year-old Cavallo moves to the top of the powerful employee representatives.
(Photo: picture alliance / dpa / VW works council)
In 2005 Osterloh took over the management of the works council. He followed Klaus Volkert, who stumbled upon a pleasure travel affair. The scandal was also a low point for IG Metall, which is very strongly organized at VW. Several difficult phases followed: The abolition of the four-day week introduced in 1994, the takeover battle with Porsche, the search for responsibility for “Dieselgate” and the Corona crisis. The Braunschweig regional court wants to examine whether some VW personnel managers may have approved long excessive salaries for high works councils.
Osterloh appeared again and again as a sharp critic of CEO Herbert Diess. So both fought hard about the conversion and savings concept “Future Pact” or about the sometimes faltering start-up of important models such as the Golf 8 or ID.3. The duels with the dashing “Uncle Herbert” (Osterloh over Diess), which were accompanied by a lot of frowning internally and externally, were so regular last year that the CEO was allegedly on the verge of being kicked out.
End of the “class warrior attitude” at VW?
The chairman of the works council had “made a significant contribution to the sustainable change to e-mobility and the software-driven mobility group,” Diess now explained. He had “constructively questioned the management”. The representatives of the Porsche / Piëch clan, VW majority shareholders, emphasize: “It goes without saying that we set different priorities on certain topics than Mr. Osterloh as the works council chairman Traton) is qualified. “
Osterloh had already received offers to go into management. After the outbreak of “Dieselgate” in the fall of 2015, he could, for example, have become the VW Chief Human Resources Officer, but he turned it down. “That always appealed to me,” he explains to the staff. “If I had left then, that would have been the absolutely wrong sign for the works council and workforce. And after that there was still a lot to do.” The conversion of the locations to e-mobility, digitization – “and a lot more”.
His close relationship with Gunnar Kilian could also have been helpful for Osterloh’s late decision to go from being a co-manager to a full-time manager. He was his spokesman for a long time, then became VW’s HR Director in 2018. In the meantime, Kilian is responsible for looking after the Traton business at group level. From his previous work on the works council and from appointments with the VW Employee Foundation, he is well-wired for the heavy “utility users” worldwide.
Osterloh, regarded by many as the secret ruler of the “Wolfsburg System”, is likely to be missing. On the one hand, his biting tone had weight. But some also see the repetitive rivalries as frozen rituals. “Perhaps there is now the opportunity to get out of confrontation and the class warrior attitude,” says one. Conversely, not everyone likes Osterloh’s sudden departure from Wolfsburg, especially now and in advanced seniority. In the end – one of Osterlohs’ most frequently used expressions – it now turns to the other side.
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