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posted by janrinok on Friday August 26 2016, @09:54AM   Printer-friendly
from the cost-of-cutting-costs dept.

The World Socialist Web Site reports

The management of Volkswagen in Germany, [Europe's largest automaker, with around 620,000 employees,] has taken a hard-line stance in a dispute with two suppliers and accepted a partial halt in [vehicle] production.

[...] Almost 30,000 workers face the threat of forced time off or reduced hours. [...] The company has applied for reduced working hours at the federal labour agency, which means employees will receive reduced-hours pay, meaning significant wage reductions.

[...] Suppliers ES Automobilguss and Car Trim allege VW has forced them to halt deliveries by ending a development cooperation programme worth half a billion euros without notice or cause. Both firms are demanding VW pay €58 million in compensation. They describe the crisis at VW as self-made. "VW was offloading its own problems onto the supply industry" and was clearly exploiting "its dominant market position against suppliers", they claimed. An employee meeting took place at ES on [August 22].

ES specialises in transmissions, while Car Trim focuses on internal fittings like car seats.

[...] The conflict between VW and Prevent [Group, which overarches the two suppliers and others,] is the outcome of the years-long process of cutting costs by shifting production from the major automakers to suppliers. Much of production has been outsourced to Eastern Europe, where wages are many times lower than those in Germany.

Previous:
Volkswagen Sets Aside 6.5 Billion Euros for Fines and Recalls
Activist-Comedian Interrupts VW Exec's Geneva Presentation to Install "Cheat Box"


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 26 2016, @01:09PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 26 2016, @01:09PM (#393455)

    Read the article, it is clearly all VW fault. Shift cost to suppliers, then cut contracts willie-nillie as if they still owned the suppliers. Then grand standing and fucking over the worker. Classic capitalism.

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  • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday August 26 2016, @02:18PM

    by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Friday August 26 2016, @02:18PM (#393487) Journal

    Do I detect the original submitter - the artist formerly known as _gewg? He held the very same views that you did.

    I had to change the submission because submissions should be neutral and factual. Unfortunately, the World Socialist Web Site doesn't even pretend to be neutral and filled the story with their own ideology. However, I am more than happy to read your own political views here in the comments and, if you are indeed the submitter, I thank you for the original submission.

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 26 2016, @02:55PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 26 2016, @02:55PM (#393509)

      It doesn't matter how TFA is tilted. If you shift your part production to suppliers you have no leg to stand on. I am sure it is only a "coincidence" that the new part suppliers lie in countries with much cheaper labor. If you shift the supply chain away from your control to save few bucks you reap what you sow. The move to save pennies fucks over your loyal worker two ways, first it fucks the workers working in your part factories (You been with us 20 years? Sorry bud if you want to keep your job move to Estonia and take 70% pay-cut), then it fucks the workers working in the main factory because of shit like this.

      • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday August 26 2016, @03:14PM

        by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Friday August 26 2016, @03:14PM (#393520) Journal

        I wasn't disagreeing with you or challenging your politics - I did say that I welcomed your views in the comments. However, I directed my other points to the original submitter (OS) - submissions have to be neutral - and it wasn't. It was just that you and the OS made exactly the same point which made me suspect that you might be one and the same. If you are not OS, then they weren't aimed at you.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 26 2016, @03:21PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 26 2016, @03:21PM (#393523)

          Well I was gonna post one thing then I read the article and posted something else. The submission didn't seem biased to me, maybe I had my biased glasses on.

        • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 26 2016, @04:10PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 26 2016, @04:10PM (#393542)

          think about this: capitalism has an ideollogy, if you force people to "neutral" titles or writing you only enable the hegemonic ideollogy then where is this touted neutrality?

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 26 2016, @04:50PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 26 2016, @04:50PM (#393561)

            Sorry, "MSM" as a derogatory label has been taken by the other side.

          • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 26 2016, @06:27PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 26 2016, @06:27PM (#393619)

            think about this: capitalism has an ideollogy, if you force people to "neutral" titles or writing you only enable the hegemonic ideollogy then where is this touted neutrality?

            Welll, if that don't just SJW the whole discussijination! A company started by [wait for it!!!] Hitler, that used concentration camp slave labor, and now is engaged in deceptive business practices, and we are to remain "neutral"? What is this place, Switzerland? Where is all that gold the Nazis stashed, then?

          • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday August 26 2016, @06:28PM

            by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Friday August 26 2016, @06:28PM (#393620) Journal

            But unnecessary ideology in the story is, well, unnecessary. People can follow the link to the full story if that is what they want to read. The role of the editor on SN is to ensure that stories are factual, accurate (to the extent that it is possible) and neutral. The place for discussion about ideology is here in the comments.

            If biased stories are published then the entire site is compromised. We become a mouthpiece for one group or another. In fact, we become one of the very things that caused this site to be created. This is not the place for propaganda, and it is one of the reasons that I dislike many of the political submissions that we receive - they are written from a biased viewpoint. For everyone that supports a particular view there are others who don't. We encourage the community to discuss the topic and let them reach their own conclusions and views.

            We do not tell, suggest or encourage the community to follow a particular political stance or ideology, religion, scientific hypothesis or anything else. If someone can't argue their case here in the comments, then don't expect us to do it for them by pushing out biased stories. Not my job. Not now, not ever.

          • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday August 26 2016, @10:59PM

            by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday August 26 2016, @10:59PM (#393725) Journal

            think about this: capitalism has an ideollogy, if you force people to "neutral" titles or writing you only enable the hegemonic ideollogy then where is this touted neutrality?

            Thinking would not come to that argument. If you can't handle neutrality, then maybe you ought to be playing in a different sandbox, kid.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 26 2016, @05:51PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 26 2016, @05:51PM (#393599)

          submissions have to be neutral

          I wouldn't give you a plugged nickel for a news source that doesn't have a point of view.
          Now, DISHONESTY is a different matter entirely.
          I challenge you to point to something in TFA which is a dishonest telling of the facts.

          - and it wasn't

          Folks who look at the Original Submission [soylentnews.org] (which you trimmed by 3 paragraphs--removing WSWS's reference to Dieselgate in the process) will see "cost killer".
          There is nothing inaccurate about that.
          There are other previous references to that characterization of that individual. [archive.li]
          (S/N's comment engine is still needlessly removing instances of e.g. %22 from URLs.)

          WSWS also used "extortion" (again, in the portion which was edited out by you).
          That a second Soylentil (the AC commenter) sees that kind of wording as accurate, reinforces the correctness of its usage.

          That you replaced my suggested dept. line wasn't a huge surprise.
          -That- _did_ go beyond the facts of the story and into interpretation.

          .
          I put the underscore in my nym(s) on the other end.
          It's been well over a year since I (accidentally) forgot to affix my nym to one of my comments.
          The AC commenter, though simpatico with my outlook, isn't me
          He's not nearly militant enough; I would have mentioned how Capitalism pursues profits at the expense of community.

          -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

          • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday August 26 2016, @06:36PM

            by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Friday August 26 2016, @06:36PM (#393628) Journal

            I wouldn't give you a plugged nickel for a news source that doesn't have a point of view.

            And I wouldn't want it any other way. Perhaps I felt that the story was more biased than it deserved because I had read the source linksand other material from them on this matter to check the accuracy of the story.

            Your suggested dept (capitalism:-it's-a-race-to-the-bottom-for-workers) set the tone for me - I felt that you were making it more political than necessary. But the story was worth publishing so I tried to remove any perceived bias - if I was heavy-handed then I apologise.