“It is about thousands of jobs, which could be affected by shorter work hours, and the responsibility to tackle these problems constructively is very high”, said Ministry’s spokesperson Andreas Audretsch, as reported by BBC. Wolfsburg will be closed through August 27, and Braunschweig through August 29.
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Europe’s largest automaker has been using legal action to try to force the two companies to resume deliveries, suggesting they could face fines or even seizure of missing parts.
Europe’s largest vehicle maker halted work at six factories across Germany, affecting almost 28,000 workers, after two subsidiaries of Sarajevo-based Prevent took the unprecedented step of withholding deliveries of components amid a contract dispute.
German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung said the suppliers were seeking 58 million euros ($66 million) from VW, without citing a source for the information.
The motor giant obtained a court injunction last week to compel the supplier – which VW did not name – to resume deliveries, but that has not been complied with.
“I don’t see this happening again”, said Sascha Gommel, an analyst with Commerzbank AG, who had estimated that the production stoppage could cut profit by as much as 70 million euros ($79 million) a week.
Some 7,500 employees at its Emden factory in northwest Germany were due to be on a more flexible timetable from 18 to 24 August, while 6,000 workers at Zwickau are scheduled to be on a temporary timetable between 22 and 26 August.
The German companies said in a statement issued through parent company Prevent DEV GmbH, “Because Volkswagen declined to offer compensation, CarTrim and ES Automobilguss were forced to stop deliveries”.
“It should never be the case that a global company has a medium-sized company as its sole supplier”, Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer of the University of Duisburg-Essen said.
VW’s supplier conflict poses a threat to the company’s profitability as it seeks to recover following its diesel emissions test cheating scandal.
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Chief executive Martin Winterkorn stepped down over the scandal, and prosecutors in the U.S. said in July that his successor, Matthias Mueller, may also have known of cars’ failure to meet emissions standards as early as 2006. VW, in the meantime, has asked the court to fine the suppliers and allow the automaker to go to their factories and load up the parts on its own, the court in Braunschweig said in a statement.
