Volkswagen Workers Are Fed Up, and Ready to Hit the Nazi-Founded Company Right Where it Hurts…

"Volkswagen "F'd around... now they gonna find out..."

Volkswagen is about to find out what happens when you piss off 120,000 workers and hand them a match. Starting Monday, Germany’s largest automaker will face a tidal wave of strikes across six key plants, as IG Metall—the heavyweight champ of European unions—gears up to unleash hell. The reason? VW’s leadership thought it could gut its workforce like a cheap fish and still walk away unscathed. Spoiler alert: they were very wrong.

(Source: Giphy) 

This isn’t just a labor dispute; it’s a full-on declaration of war. Volkswagen wants to shut down three factories, lay off tens of thousands of workers, and slap the survivors with a 10% pay cut—all while blaming “market conditions” and a sluggish EV transition. IG Metall’s response? F ‘around and find out. 

(Source: Wall Street Journal) 

The cause of this fiasco is all due to the fact that VW’s leadership has been stumbling around like a drunk at Oktoberfest, desperately trying to save face after two profit warnings in just three months. With Chinese automakers eating its lunch and EV sales stalling harder than a 20-year-old Dieselgate Passat, the company’s margins have crumbled to a laughable 2.1% for its core brand. And what’s their big plan to fix it? Close plants. Outsource divisions. Cut jobs. Oh, and make the remaining workers take a 10% pay cut while upper management does what upper management does best: presumably nothing. 

(Source: Giphy) 

Arne Meiswinkel, VW’s chief negotiator, summed up the company’s vibe with this gem: “If we remain at this level, we will be unable to finance our future.” Translation: We’ve screwed up royally, but hey, let’s make the workers pay for it because that seems easier than fixing our own mistakes. But, but, but… while that may work in other corporate cage-matches, IG Metall wasn’t born yesterday. The union offered a compromise—a €1.5 billion cost-saving plan that would temporarily redirect wage increases to cover reduced hours and cut bonuses for two years. VW? They basically laughed in their faces and said, Nah, we’re good.

“VW had the chance to take plant closures and mass layoffs off the table in three negotiations—but that didn’t happen,” said Thorsten Gröger, IG Metall’s negotiator. And then came the warning shot heard ‘round Germany: “The appropriate response will now follow from the beginning of December: There is a threat of a labor dispute at Volkswagen, the likes of which hasn’t been seen for a long time.” Translation: We’re about to make your life a living hell.

(Source: Giphy) 

Looking ahead, the strikes will start small—brief walkouts to rattle VW’s cage. But if the company doesn’t come crawling back to the negotiating table by December 9, IG Metall is ready to escalate to 24-hour or even indefinite strikes. Imagine entire production lines grinding to a halt while VW’s already-slipping profits nosedive straight into the abyss.

What’s actually hilarious about this is the fact that Volkswagen loves to parade itself as “the people’s car,” but good luck selling that fairytale when you’re gutting jobs and slashing wages like their Nazis (spoiler: They are, look it up). IG Metall isn’t just going to strike—they’re going to drag VW’s reputation through the mud and then light it on fire. And honestly? The company deserves every bit of it.

(Source: Quartz) 

You see, the brass tacks of it all is that this isn’t just about Volkswagen. The entire European auto industry is teetering on the edge of collapse. EV sales are floundering, Chinese automakers are dominating, and Germany’s economy has the energy of a stalled Trabant. Ford’s already axed 4,000 jobs in Europe, and GM and Nissan are making similar cuts. VW’s cost-cutting spree is just the latest chapter in a grim story that’s playing out across the continent. 

But IG Metall isn’t just fighting for VW workers—they’re sending a clear message to every automaker in Europe: Try to screw your workforce, and we will F**k you up. 

(Source: Giphy)

In the end, we are about to witness a reckoning unfold. Volkswagen’s leadership thought they could balance the books by throwing their workers under the bus, but IG Metall has other plans. The strikes starting Monday are just the opening salvo in what could become a full-scale industrial apocalypse.

And now, Volkswagen has until December 9th to pull its head out of it’s exhaust pipe. If they don’t, IG Metall will hit them where it hurts—in the factories, in the wallets, and in the court of public opinion. One thing’s for sure: VW is about to learn the hard way that when you mess with 120,000 angry workers, you’re not just playing with fire—you’re playing with a MF inferno. 

In the meantime, let’s all enjoy the fireworks shall we? As always stay safe and stay frosty, friends! Until next time…

P.S. It’s Black Friday weekend, and if you miss out on this 90% OFF deal that expires in less than 72 hours, well, then… you probably weren’t cut out for these absolute FIRE alerts anyway. Spoiler: Yesterday's alert popped 130% BEFORE the markets even opened. 

Stocks.News holds positions in Ford as mentioned in the article.