Stuttgart. Uwe Hueck, Chair of the Group Works Council for Porsche Automobil Holding SE and Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, Stuttgart, addressed the employees of the sports car manufacturer today with regard to recent media reports. At the Annual General Meeting, in which more than 2,000 employees from the early and late shift participated, he explained his position with respect to the contents of the articles and confirmed that for a relatively long time now he has been the subject of spying and anonymous threats against him and his family.
When the employees asked if the media reports, which stated that exploratory talks with the VW Works Council regarding the co-determination agreement had been broken off, were true, Hueck made it clear that these talks would go ahead. "Negotiations are ongoing and we're very interested in reaching a compromise within the co-determination agreement with the representatives of the VW workforce," Hueck said to the employees of Porsche AG.
He also criticized the Head of the IG Metall workers' union in Wolfsburg, Frank Patta, who, in the Braunschweiger Zeitung newspaper at the weekend, had threatened to mobilize IG Metall members for a 'march on Zuffenhausen' with the aim of blockading the whole Porsche plant.
Hueck referred to the peculiar views expressed by the trade union and the use of language that was unworthy of IG Metall officials. "A protest by members of IG Metall gives completely the wrong signal. I refuse to allow IG Metall members to be pitted against other IG Metall members," Hueck said to the Porsche employees, adding, "Our challengers are based in Japan, China and India - not in our own country."
More than 2,000 employees present then finally agreed, through abstention, to grant Hueck the mandate to continue talks and thus make use of the scope offered by the co-determination covenant. This means, for example, that the number of seats in the Works Council of Porsche Automobil Holding SE would be negotiable. Nevertheless, it's also clear to both Hueck and the Porsche workforce that there can be no further renegotiation of the concluded co-determination agreement.
