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.
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Volkswagen Sets Aside 6.5 Billion Euros for Fines and Recalls
Activist-Comedian Interrupts VW Exec's Geneva Presentation to Install "Cheat Box"
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Volkswagen has issued a statement regarding the emissions cheating incident:
Discrepancies relate to vehicles with Type EA 189 engines, involving some eleven million vehicles worldwide. A noticeable deviation between bench test results and actual road use was established solely for this type of engine. Volkswagen is working intensely to eliminate these deviations through technical measures. The company is therefore in contact with the relevant authorities and the German Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA – Kraftfahrtbundesamt).
To cover the necessary service measures and other efforts to win back the trust of our customers, Volkswagen plans to set aside a provision of some 6.5 billion EUR recognized in the profit and loss statement in the third quarter of the current fiscal year. Due to the ongoing investigations the amounts estimated may be subject to revaluation. Earnings targets for the Group for 2015 will be adjusted accordingly.
Volkswagen does not tolerate any kind of violation of laws whatsoever. It is and remains the top priority of the Board of Management to win back lost trust and to avert damage to our customers. The Group will inform the public on the further progress of the investigations constantly and transparently.
From The Register:
To put that in perspective, Volkswagen's profits for the last financial year were €10.85bn (US$12.1bn), so the firm is banking on having to pay out at least half of its profits, and possibly a lot more. The EPA (US Environmental Protection Agency) has already said that the company could be liable for up to $18bn in fine and fix costs, and that was when only half a million cars were thought to be dodgy. As a result, the wheels have fallen off the company's stock price. Shares have nearly halved in value since the firm admitted using the emission-control software, and they are likely to fall further as the scandal unfolds.
Volkswagen's CEO Martin Winterkorn has already issued a public apology for his firm's conduct, and his position is looking increasingly untenable. Rumors of his forced retirement are already circulating, although these are being denied at present.
The case could also have an interesting knock-on effect in the software field. Technically, Volkswagen's software was covered under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, meaning tinkerers couldn't have examined and altered the code. The EPA has been lobbying with car companies to make sure the DMCA continues to make engine management software off limits to tinkerers. But based on its experience with Volkswagen, the agency may be changing that stance.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has been quick to pounce on the DMCA connection.
The BBC reports that this affects 11 million vehicles worldwide, although many of those have passed local emission controls satisfactorily. Neverthless, the same or similar software is believed to be fitted in all those vehicles. The EPA found the "defeat device", the device that allowed VW cars to emit less during tests than they would while driving normally, in diesel cars including the Audi A3 and the VW Jetta, Beetle, Golf and Passat models.
Update: Volkswagen chief executive Martin Winterkorn resigns.
Common Dreams reports:
In a slick protest and righteous reminder that Volkswagen has yet to leave behind its Dieselgate emissions cheating scandal, British activist and comedian Simon Brodkin sabotaged a VW presentation at the Geneva Motor Show Tuesday. As marketing chief Juergen Stackmann sang the praises of their new electrically powered Up! models, Brodkin ambled [1] onto the stage in VW-branded overalls, wielding a wrench and prop [labeled] "cheat box", and began climbing under the car to "fix it". "It's okay, I have the new cheat box", he calmly explained to the bewildered Stackmann. "No one's going to find out about this one."
[...] As Stackmann tried to haul him out from under the car--"It doesn't need a repair, it's a perfect car"--Brodkin referenced VW's [lying, disgraced] CEO with, "Mr. Müller says it's okay as long as no one finds out."
[1] Content is behind scripts. archive.is clears up that nuisance.
Previously: Rogue Engineers and Vehicle Emissions
More SoylentNews stories about VW.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 26 2016, @10:29AM
Gas them and feed them to the dogs! It's the German way.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 26 2016, @11:28AM
So here's something that is:
http://bbs.progrider.org/prog/read/1471949120 [progrider.org]
http://bbs.progrider.org/lounge/read/1471946796 [progrider.org]
Try some libre vidya
Tired of being tired, but don't want to de-bed?
Try something new (to you):
Info:
https://lgdb.org/game/chaosesque-anthology [lgdb.org] [lgdb.org]
http://www.moddb.com/games/chaosesqueanthology [moddb.com] [moddb.com]
https://sourceforge.net/projects/chaosesqueanthology/ [sourceforge.net]
Direct download:
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/chaosesqueanthology/Rel_93/XonoticChaosEsqueAnthologyREL93.iso?r=&ts=1471771440&use_mirror=liquidtelecom [sourceforge.net]
Thoughts?
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 26 2016, @10:20PM
Play Mikee's "text based slot machine game which displayed messages encouraging the denial of women’s rights":
https://kiwifarms.net/threads/mikeeusa-michael-mcallister-mikhail-kvaratskhelia.19315/ [kiwifarms.net]
More fun Mikee games:
https://geekfeminism.org/2009/10/19/mikeeusas-code-now-available-on-geekfeminism-org/ [geekfeminism.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 26 2016, @01:09PM
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.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday August 26 2016, @02:18PM
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by janrinok on Friday August 26 2016, @02:36PM
This is, of course, touted as one of the benefits of the European Union. Labour is free to move within the EU without restriction and, as a result, those from the lower paid areas are flocking to the more wealthy regions where they are prepared to cut the going rate to something that is unattractive to those from that region but to the worker is still a fortune. Various car manufacturers are going one better and moving production to the less expensive regions and claiming it is 'bringing wealth' to those countries. Of course, it is doing that but it is also taking that wealth from elsewhere. VW are trying the method outlined in TFS, while Renault have created their own company (Dacia) to produce cars under licence in Romania, Morocco, and elsewhere.
Whether this is good or bad is perhaps a different discussion.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 26 2016, @06:26PM
If that was true, refugees wouldn't be getting the abuse they are.
...and people picking up their entire existence and leaving all social ties behind in pursuit of employment in a distant place is NOT normal.
Companies moving production|sourcing to the other end of the continent is an example of the ease with which CAPITAL is allowed to move.
Whether this is good or bad...
That evaluation is dependent on whether one values profit for a few above all else or one values a stable society that sees humans as more than exploitable labor.
It's a choice between concentrated wealth (and the resulting concentrated political power) on the one hand and healthy communities on the other.
An example of the latter is Marinaleda, in Spain. [googleusercontent.com] (orig) [jacobinmag.com]
In the case of the former, with the race-to-the-bottom paradigm of Capitalism, you don't have to look very far to find an example of a town slipping into a Dickensian state of existence.
As illustrated by TFA, Capitalism and "free trade" has humanity moving backwards.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 26 2016, @06:52PM
The refugees originate from outside the EU. International law states that they may claim asylum in the first country that they come to that provides safety from the whatever is threatening their lives in their own country. It does not accept economic migration as a valid justification for claiming asylum. The reason that refugees are being 'abused' is that they are picking and choosing which country they want to claim asylum - usually one that pays more in support or benefits than others, or offers them the best potential lifestyle.
There is no restriction on the movement of EU citizens within the EU - although some countries are now becoming unhappy by this fact.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 29 2016, @01:30PM
They got what they deserve, with scores of them getting trapped in Italy and having to let old men screw them for 5 euros a pop to survive.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday August 26 2016, @11:26PM
An example of the latter is Marinaleda, in Spain. (orig) In the case of the former, with the race-to-the-bottom paradigm of Capitalism, you don't have to look very far to find an example of a town slipping into a Dickensian state of existence.
We also don't have to look hard for towns that don't slip into Dickensian states of existence. Like most of the developed world.
That evaluation is dependent on whether one values profit for a few above all else or one values a stable society that sees humans as more than exploitable labor.
Let us note that exploitable labor is the primary vehicle by which people improve themselves and stuff gets done. Even the socialist societies you mention now and in the past exploit labor. The crops don't pick themselves in Marinaleda. A huge part of the point of stable societies is to provide the support for cooperative labor efforts (like businesses or a cooperative), a reasonably fair market for labor, and useful outlets for the fruits of labor (such as a home, investments, leisure, etc in a capitalist society).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 26 2016, @06:25PM
All industries do it. "Just get a contractor and if anything goes wrong get rid of them".
Basically a way to shift blame onto another group that has less rights and you dont have to 'deal with the paper work'.
I am usually doing computer stuff. I can not even count the number of times I have heard the phrase above. It usually comes from a boss who wants to treat his workers like disposable parts.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 26 2016, @09:18PM
I keep being told that unions are ambrosia culled from the hand of man, and if those evil capitalist would just adopt a more enlightened European view, all of our labor troubles would be solved! High minimum wage and there isn't even a hint of the possibility jobs would migrate.
Where are those brilliant economic minds to explain this?