Following the escalation of the dispute over the pace of the conversion of Volkswagen, CEO Herbert Diess and the works council are trying to limit the damage.

On Thursday, Diess appealed to the workforce at the Wolfsburg parent plant to pull together with him in the transformation.

"Only together can we make Volkswagen future-proof," said the CEO in front of thousands of VW employees.

He and works council chief Daniela Cavallo agree on this.

Cavallo, in turn, criticized Diess for his comments about the threat of staff cuts, but also made it clear that the dispute was not about individuals.

“The only thing that interests us are solutions to the challenges ahead.” However, employees said that trust in Diess had been massively damaged. The next few weeks would show whether it was irreparable.

Mediation Committee switched on

As heard from company circles on Wednesday, Diess is once again targeted by the unions because of the changes he has called for. The source of the speculation about his replacement is unclear, but some see it in the top of IG Metall, whose chairman Jörg Hofmann sits on the VW supervisory board. Accordingly, the mediation committee of the supervisory board should deal with the professional future of the CEO. "This is the subject of the mediation committee," said a person involved in the deliberations on Wednesday.

Works council groups in Wolfsburg promptly rowed back when asked. It is not about pushing Diess out of office, it said. But with his announcement that the transformation to electromobility could cost up to 30,000 jobs, the question arose of how far the VW boss would take care of jobs in the company.

In her speech at the works meeting, Cavallo said that Diess was carelessly speculating about downsizing.

"With the stroke of a pen as if it were nothing, just put a number of 30,000 in the room." After that, Diess took almost 48 hours to comment on it.

"And then to say: Oh, everything wasn't meant like that!", Criticized Cavallo. "Let me clarify what this does to the colleagues here who have been on short-time work almost consistently for a year and a half. They are afraid! Afraid for their work, for their families, for their existence. "

Because: create perspective

Lower Saxony's Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) argued similarly. In such a situation, a company shouldn't stir up worries. "The task of the company in these times is to provide prospects," said the SPD politician. Lower Saxony is the second largest VW owner after the family holding Porsche SE. IG Metall boss Jörg Hoffmann emphasized at the event that Volkswagen needed a motivated workforce to switch to electromobility: "A trainer who has no access to the team loses the game on the pitch."

Even if Diess and Cavallo struck moderate tones and emphasized their willingness to talk - both remained tough on the matter. “There is not one person too many on board here. You cannot negotiate one position with us in addition. We have already done our homework, ”said the head of the works council, who replaced the long-term employee representative Bernd Osterloh in this position in April. Participants describe it as less loud and more authoritative in style than its predecessor, who had fought verbally with Diess in public. But it also follows a clear line, said one connoisseur.

But VW boss Diess also wants to stick to his course: Volkswagen must increase productivity and accelerate the conversion in order not to be left behind by Tesla. The 63-year-old explained that he wanted to make the main factory "the flagship for car production again." Grünheide near Berlin, Tesla wants to build half a million cars a year with 7,000 employees. "I don't need to mention what all of this means on the stock exchange."

Tesla has unlimited access to money and resources thanks to its high stock market valuation. "Even if I don't talk about Elon Musk anymore: He'll stay there and revolutionize our industry and quickly become more and more competitive," said Diess. More startups from China pushed their way into the market. After the diesel scandal, Volkswagen had proven that the group could use a crisis to break out. "Let's do it again," he urged the staff.

The argument is probably far from over.

The question is whether Diess will change his behavior, said an employee representative who did not want to be named.

He indicated that a break could not be ruled out either.

The negotiations over the next few weeks on a joint plan for the future of the Wolfsburg plant up to the end of the decade (vision 2030) are the acid test.

For this reason, among other things, the investment planning set for mid-November for the next five years had been postponed to December 9th.