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VW, Works Council Reach Accord on Labor Cuts

Bernd Osterloh, Volkswagen AG board member who heads the company’s powerful works council, says his long-running dispute with VW brand chief Herbert Diess about how to cut costs has been settled.
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Bernd Osterloh, Volkswagen AG board member who heads the company’s powerful works council, says his long-running dispute with VW brand chief Herbert Diess about how to cut costs has been settled.

“Now we have consensus,” Osterloh tells Handelsblatt. “All participants have the goal to enter calmer waters.”

Diess arrived from BMW AG in 2015 to lead an aggressive cost-cutting plan for the brand that includes reducing the workforce through attrition. Osterloh complained that Diess seized on VW’s diesel emission cheating crisis to accelerate the pace of cutbacks agreed to last November.

VW brand operations have trimmed its workforce by about 2,000 workers since the beginning of 2015, according to Osterloh. He notes the company also plans efficiency moves that will save some €10 billion per year.

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