VW may have to cut jobs in the U.S., report says

U.S. jobs join European jobs on the chopping block

Staff photo by Tim Barber / Chanee Baker installs a tunnel shield to the chassis of a Volkswagen Passat on the production line in Chattanooga.
Staff photo by Tim Barber / Chanee Baker installs a tunnel shield to the chassis of a Volkswagen Passat on the production line in Chattanooga.

Volkswagen may have to cut jobs in the United States as well as Europe and other countries depending on how big a fine has to be paid for its manipulation of diesel emissions tests, the carmaker's top labor official told a meeting of 20,000 workers at its German headquarters today.

The U.S. Justice Department has sued Volkswagen for up to $46 billion for breaching U.S. environmental laws, while there is still no fix for nearly 600,000 cars affected in the United States almost six months after the scandal broke.

The extent to which VW may be forced to cut jobs to help meet the costs of 'Dieselgate' depends "decisively" on the level of fines, VW's works councils chairman Bernd Osterloh said today at the meeting of workers in Wolfsburg which was also attended by the carmaker's top managers, according to Reuters.

"Should the future viability of Volkswagen be endangered by an unprecedented financial penalty, this will have dramatic social consequences," said Osterloh, who also sits on VW's 20-member supervisory board.

The Chattanooga plant has about 2,400 people working at the factory, where the company is spending $600 million to expand the site and build a new sport utility vehicle by year's end.

Europe's largest automaker employs over 600,000 people at around 120 factories worldwide, including 270,000 in Germany.

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