Strike Ends at Volkswagen Brazil Plant
SAO PAULO, Brazil, Sept 4, 2006; Reuters reported that workers at Volkswagen AG's biggest Brazilian plant ended a strike on Monday after the German company agreed to reevaluate plans to cut 1,800 jobs, officials from the labor union at the factory and the automaker told Reuters.
Production was returning to normal as representatives from both sides entered a new round of negotiations about the jobs.
Workers at the Sao Bernardo do Campo car plant, which employs 12,000, downed tools last week after Volkswagen announced a round of layoffs and a possible plant closure.
The plant's workers account for more than half of 21,000 people Volkswagen employs in Latin America's largest country.
The Sao Bernardo plant churns out 960 vehicles per day, including the popular compact Fox. A one-day warning strike over planned layoffs at Volkswagen's three passenger car plants in May resulted in 2,500 vehicles not being produced.
Volkswagen has two other plants in Brazil producing motors, trucks and buses.
Volkswagen threatened to shut down the Sao Bernardo plant, also known as Anchieta, last week. It is the oldest plant in Brazil. It also said last month it may lay off between 4,000 and 6,000 workers until 2008 to staunch losses caused by an unfavorable foreign exchange rate.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who started his career as a union leader in the same region as the plant, last week blamed management for Volkswagen's woes.
Volkswagen has said it may forgo exporting 100,000 vehicles until 2008
because of the exchange rate. Exports account for 40 percent of
Volkswagen's Brazilian output. Brazil's currency, the real