To add some context, Volkswagen paid out billions in dividends this year.

If you find you need to cut 50000 jobs you better start at the top because it's outrageous you'd ever be that oversubscribed to begin with.

Blume could start with firing Blume and other CEOs, for they only take profit but not contribute to it. Fucking leeches.

Volkswagen needs deep cuts to remain competitive, CEO says ahead of crunch talks

"Volkswagen needs deep cuts to remain competitive while the CEO and executive suite of employees can maintain their extremely exorbitant paychecks unhindered" is a bit more accurate.

In these times, news like that could be counted as propaganda to prepare the unions to accept lower offers and cuts like that.

Volkswagen is not nearly doing as bad as they are trying to make it seem.

The major cost burden in the car industry isn't attributed to labour but to suppliers.

European brands treat their suppliers much better than their rivals from other continents do, particularly those from China.

Chinese EVs aren't only so cheap because of forced labour, a 996 working culture, weak labour rights, acess to cheap land and loans, and subsidies. There are more reasons, one of them being its practice to squeeze its suppliers.

As one investigation reveals about Chinese supplier payment float,

... Another way Chinese OEMs lower costs is by minimizing financing needs through very long supplier payment terms. In 2023–24, BYD took an average of about 155 days to pay suppliers, Geely 149 days, and Leapmotor a staggering 225 days. This stands in sharp contrast to Western peers, whose payment terms are far shorter—roughly 60 days for Tesla, 43 for Volkswagen, and 41 for Toyota—indicating that they have not followed their Chinese rivals’ practices.

While this practice benefits OEM cash flow, it has severe consequences for suppliers, limiting their ability to reinvest in capex and R&D and potentially undermining quality—posing longer-term risks for China’s auto industry. Beijing has begun to rein in excessive payment delays, but enforcement has been slow. In 2025, Chinese OEMs’ payment terms remained far longer than those of Western counterparts ...

China's leading carmaker BYD even controls suppliers with D-chain, a 'inhouse' payment system,

BYD typically follows a net 30 to 60 payment cycle, with the D-chain system adding an additional six to eight months to that period. In practice, that stretches the total payment period to between eight and 10 months.

That approach greatly reduces BYD’s financial pressure, but is to the considerable disadvantage of its suppliers.

By tying its suppliers to the D-chain platform, BYD can integrate them into its own financial ecosystem, tightening control over its supply chain.

The model also allows BYD to circumvent traditional financial oversight, as it avoids issuing regular commercial paper and standard banking transactions.

its like saying they grown to big, profitable and said they need to scaleback operations.