{"id":126957,"date":"2014-06-30T18:09:23","date_gmt":"2014-06-30T18:09:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=126957"},"modified":"2014-06-30T18:09:23","modified_gmt":"2014-06-30T18:09:23","slug":"german-automaker-bmw-reports-record-sales-prepares-attacks-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/business-news\/german-automaker-bmw-reports-record-sales-prepares-attacks-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"German automaker BMW reports record sales, prepares attacks on workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Regens<\/em><\/p>\n

Germany\u2019s third largest automaker, BMW, is planning major wage cuts and rationalisation measures. Many of the proposals were initiated directly by the works council, which has been collaborating closely with management for months. Meanwhile, the first results of the discussions between management, the IG Metall trade union and works councils have gradually been released to the public.<\/p>\n

At the beginning of the month, it was announced that BMW intends to cut employee costs at its German plants by \u00e2\u201a\u00ac100 million. This was reported byOberbayrische Volksblatt<\/em>, based on unanimous statements from leading IG Metall and works council officials. According to them, rest breaks, known as \u201csandwich breaks\u201d in the Bavarian plants, will no longer be paid.<\/p>\n

Further cuts will affect paid holidays. Since BMW employees work in practical terms four days per week, due to extremely flexible labour patterns, they previously were paid for holidays that fell on days when they were not working. This practice is now to be halted. In addition, premiums for so-called shift variation hours are to go.<\/p>\n

All of the proposals by the BMW works council aim to cut wages severely. According to\u00a0Oberbayrische Volksblatt<\/em>, wages are to be cut by a planned \u00e2\u201a\u00ac15 million at the plant in Regensburg, and a double-digit million figure is to be cut from the main plant in Munich. The largest plant in Dingolfing will see annual savings from 2014 of \u00e2\u201a\u00ac37 million, IG Metall and works council representatives confirmed to\u00a0Manager Magazin<\/em>. The restructuring plans are being coordinated by Manfred Schoch, head of the company\u2019s works council.<\/p>\n

As the\u00a0Oberbayrische Volksblatt<\/em>\u00a0wrote, the cost-cutting plans of management were preceded by proposals from the works councils at the Bavarian plants. \u201cWe provided almost half of the entire savings,\u201d a \u201cleading works council representative\u201d told the newspaper. Which of the works councils made proposals for their own plant or for another in this process is not yet known.<\/p>\n

Management set a strict deadline for savings proposals from the works councils, with the threat that production would otherwise be shifted to other plants. A BMW spokesman described the procedure as an \u201con-going process\u201d aimed at securing the competitiveness of each location.<\/p>\n

IG Metall supports management\u2019s efforts to play each location off against the others. The\u00a0S\u00c3\u00bcddeutsche Zeitung<\/em>\u00a0quoted the regional head of IG Metall in Bavaria, J\u00c3\u00bcrgen Wechsler (Social Democrats), saying it is \u201ctotally normal in a large company\u201d when locations are evaluated and compared with each other.<\/p>\n

The plans of management and the trade unions go far beyond the savings made so far. Based on a management source,\u00a0Manager Magazin<\/em>\u00a0reported last week on a savings programme that would no longer aim at just \u00e2\u201a\u00ac100 million this year, but include several billion euros. The aim was to save \u00e2\u201a\u00ac3 billion to \u00e2\u201a\u00ac4 billion per year until 2020. BMW chief executive Norbert Reithofer had already contracted business consultants McKinsey to draft proposals.<\/p>\n

On the same day, a company spokesman contradicted this claim in the online edition of\u00a0Handelsblatt<\/em>, but confirmed that they would strive \u201cin the coming years also to reduce cost increases by several hundred million annually.\u201d Based on this statement and the savings plans already announced,Handelsblatt<\/em>\u00a0speculated that cuts of \u00e2\u201a\u00ac500 million per year, totalling \u00e2\u201a\u00ac3 billion by 2020, could be made.<\/p>\n

The planned attacks at BMW are part of comprehensive wage cutting in the auto industry. Competitor Daimler also recently expanded its savings plans. The Stuttgart-based firm intends to save \u00e2\u201a\u00ac2 billion by the end of 2014 in their lorry division alone. The company already cut costs by \u00e2\u201a\u00ac800 million last year.<\/p>\n

The millions in cuts at BMW are aimed exclusively at enriching investors, as the concern is profitable. Simultaneously, with the first reports on the planned cuts, management reported that BMW was predicted to achieve a global sales record for vehicles sold in 2014. Company-wide sales figures increased between May 2013 and May 2014 by 6.8 percent. For the first time in the company\u2019s history, the sale of 2 million vehicles in a year is planned.<\/p>\n

While the workers are being urged to accept cuts and increased pressure for competitiveness, shareholders are achieving record profits. In 2013, the company made profits of \u00e2\u201a\u00ac5.34 billion. Shared between all of the company\u2019s approximately 110,000 workers, it amounts to roughly \u00e2\u201a\u00ac48,400 of profit per worker.<\/p>\n

The greatest beneficiary is the Quandt family, whose wealth was acquired thanks to its support for the Nazis and the exploitation in the concentration camps. Stefan Quandt, son of Johanna and Herbert Quandt, controlled total wealth of an estimated $11.9 billion in 2012. He holds 17.4 percent of BMW\u2019s shares. Given a dividend of \u00e2\u201a\u00ac2.60 per share, he is likely to have received more than a quarter of a billion euros purely in dividends between May 2013 and May 2014. Stefan Quandt is the sixth richest German and was 81st on the global rich list for 2013.<\/p>\n

His mother Johanna Quandt owns 16.7 percent of BMW stock and likely earned more than \u00e2\u201a\u00ac250 million in 2013 as a result. She is considered the second richest German woman and allegedly has a fortune of over $10 billion. The final figure to be mentioned is Susana Klatten (born Quandt). With an estimated wealth of \u00e2\u201a\u00ac17.4 billion, she is considered Germany\u2019s richest woman, and controls 12.6 percent of BMW\u2019s shares.<\/p>\n

Other BMW shareholders are the global major banks, hedge funds, large investors, and to a lesser extent, small investors. The notorious investment firm Blackrock, the world\u2019s largest wealth management fund, holds 3.98 percent of BMW\u2019s shares. In recent years, the dividend for shareholders has continuously risen. Between 2009 and 2013 it rose from \u00e2\u201a\u00ac0.30 per share to \u00e2\u201a\u00ac2.60. The share price rose to \u00e2\u201a\u00ac8.10, a 246 percent increase within four years.<\/p>\n

This was possible above all by making labour patterns more flexible, combined with speed-up and social attacks on the workers. IG Metall officials on site, on the executive board, or in the trade union centre in Frankfurt have played a central role in the imposition of these measures. Now they are planning further attacks on the workers.<\/p>\n

This piece<\/a> was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Regens Germany\u2019s third largest automaker, BMW, is planning major wage cuts and rationalisation measures. Many of the proposals were initiated directly by the works council, which has been collaborating closely with management for months. Meanwhile, the first results of the discussions between management, the IG Metall trade union and works councils have gradually been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-126957","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news","7":"category-business-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126957\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}