Volkswagen's labor chief says U.S. operations a 'disaster'

I will use any excuse to use a picture of the 'Love Bug'....

By Andreas Cremer and Jan Schwartz



(Reuters) - Volkswagen's (VOWG_p.DE) top labor representative has dubbed the carmaker's U.S. operations a "disaster" and called for more models and swift decisions to revive the German group's declining fortunes in the world's second-largest auto market.

While VW has risen to become the biggest automaker in China and Europe, the group has yet to fully understood how to succeed in the United States, Bernd Osterloh, VW's works council chief, told reporters in Wolfsburg on Wednesday.

"The U.S. are a case of disaster" for VW, said Osterloh, who also sits on the carmaker's supervisory board.

The German multi-brand group last month ousted U.S. divisional chief Jonathan Browning, who oversaw the much-lauded 2011 launch of the midsize Passat, sales of which declined 6.3 percent last year after a 2011/12 surge.

Osterloh echoed criticism from the company's new head of U.S. operations, Michael Horn, who this month said that VW headquarters had paid little heed to the dynamics of the U.S. market.

VW's situation in the United States, where the company has been grappling with losses for years, won't improve until 2016 and it needs more models there, including a pick-up truck, Osterloh said.

At the Detroit auto show in January VW announced plans to make a sport utility vehicle (SUV) for North America as part of a $7 billion investment in the region.

Osterloh lamented that a year after the "CrossBlue" SUV was unveiled, it's still unclear where the model will be built. The carmaker favors its U.S. plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, over a factory in Puebla, Mexico, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

VW's labor leader said that Chattanooga would make sense from an economic viewpoint if the company could offset the higher personnel costs compared with Puebla.

Separately, Osterloh said that the carmaker would be able to cope with changes to top management at any time. Five of the nine executives, including CEO Martin Winterkorn, are older than 60.

"I believe we can react quickly if we're in need of (personnel) changes," Osterloh said.

Speculation about a potential lack of a younger generation of leaders at VW flared up last September when the carmaker denied a report claiming that 76-year-old chairman Ferdinand Piech would soon step down for health reasons and be replaced by 66-year-old Winterkorn.

Osterloh said he is counting on both Piech and Winterkorn to serve through at least until 2018, the year VW has pledged to overtake Toyota (7203.T) and General Motors (GM.N) as the world's biggest carmaker by volume.

"I would be one of the first who would find out if one of those two wants to go," said Osterloh, a member of the board's influential steering committee.

Source;
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/22/us-vw-usa-labour-idUSBREA0L15O20140122