Workers of the German auto manufacturer Volkswagen Group are collectively organized and represented across a variety of worker organizations including trade unions and Works Councils across the globe. Workers are organized on multiple levels; locally, regionally, nationally, internationally and by marque.
Within Germany, the role of the trade union IG Metall and Works Councils at Volkswagen is unique, even compared with other large auto firms.
Volkswagen workers have some of the strongest organized labour power of any company in the world. Some of these powers are codified in different collective agreements internationally. The German collective agreements cover 120,000 workers, nearly the entire German workforce.
With the exception of the United States, workers at all of its major locations are represented in the Global Works Council and local trade union bodies. VW Group has a tradition and practice of social partnership and co-determination rights between management and workers beyond the regulated standards.
Transnational activity
VW Group operates 120 plants in 29 countries as of November 2021. VW Group opened its first foreign plant in Brazil in 1953. Transnational labour organizing started in the 1970s with German workers and workers at its foreign locations which were Belgium, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa. The German Works Councils were particularly concerned with the political developments in Apartheid South Africa and the military dictatorship in Brazil. While most of the Volkswagen worker organizations operate on a respective national level, several transnational structures like the VW Global and European Works Councils and the InterSoli groups bridge these connections.
A general tension exists between the interests of the workers in the headquarter state (Germany) and foreign states, but workers in foreign states also gain strategic benefits from having closer access to a well resourced trade union (IG Metall) and the German Works Councils with their direct access to central management.
From a managerial point of view, countries with limited employee representation have a 'competitive advantage' over countries with strong representation (i.e Germany). For German VW workers, expanding German 'best practices' globally neutralizes that threat by leveling the playing field.
International Solidarity working group
The International Solidarity (InterSoli) working group of IG Metall Wolfsburg (German: Arbeitskreis Internationale Solidarität der IG Metall Wolfsburg) launched in 1982, with separate working groups focused on Brazil, Mexico and South Africa. In February 1999, InterSoli launched the China working group. Three years later the Central and Eastern Europe working group was established in February 2002.
InterSoli, in addition to the VW World Group Committee established in 1979 by the International Metal Workers' Federation, facilitates global contact between German trade union members and workers in foreign operations.
European Works Council
With the acquisition of SEAT in 1986, VW Group had operations in 3 European states: Germany, Belgium and Spain. The German Group Works Council and foreign members of VW Group initiated the formation of a European Works Council. The first meeting was in 1990, with a signed agreement in 1992; a full two years prior to the EU ratification of the European Works Council Directive (94/45/EC).
As of 2017, the VW European Works Council has 70 employee representatives.
Global Works Council
The Volkswagen Group Global Works Council (GWC) also known as the Volkswagen Group World Works Council, was established in 1998. It was the first Global Works Council of its kind anywhere in the world. The first president, and general secretary of the GWC was , the VW European–, Group– and General Works Council chair at the time. The preamble and provisions of the GWC are copied nearly verbatim from the VW European Works Council agreements, albeit with a different formula accounting for the additional non–European countries. It consisted of 27 employee representatives, 20 from Europe and 7 from other parts of the world. It has grown as of 2017 to 100 employee representatives.
Global Framework Agreements
In 2002, VW Group, the European and Global Works Councils signed the "Declaration on Social Rights and Industrial Relationships at Volkswagen" a Global Framework Agreement (GFA) with the International Metalworkers' Federation.