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German car workers launch rolling strikes against Volkswagen job cuts and closures
Volkswagen workers march holding a sign with writing reading in German "Ready to Strike!" on the first day of a nationwide warning Volkswagen workers' strike, in Zwickau, Germany, December 2, 2024 [Hendrik Schmidt/dpa via AP]

WORKERS at nine Volkswagen plants in Germany launched a series of rolling two-hour strikes today in resistance to a programme of pay cuts and factory closures.

Volkswagen says the swingeing cuts are necessary to cope with a slack European car market.

The so-called warning strikes included the company’s base plant at Wolfsburg, where workers were set to rally against a cost-cutting drive by the car-maker’s management in which they face the threat of the company’s first plant closures in its home country.

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