Potsdam, GERMANY (dpa-AFX) - Employees of the Volkswagen Group Future
Centre in Potsdam - a design centre with around 100 employees - are
protesting against the planned end to the unit's operations at the
end of the year.

More than 50 employees protested at a rally organized by the IG
Metall union against the closure of the almost 20-year-old site in
eastern Germany on Monday.

'I want a fair chance,' said works council chairman Anno Stake. 'We
did great projects here, we are still doing great projects.'

Around two thirds of the site's budget has been cut over the past one
and a half years due to internal restructuring within the Group.

The management of the VW Design Centre says it wants to find an
answer that works in the interests of the workers. 'The management of
the Future Centre Potsdam regrets the current situation and is
looking for the best possible solutions for the employees,'
Volkswagen Group Services told dpa.

The centre was opened in 2005 and later restructured and renamed. It
was regarded as the group's largest development workshop worldwide
following the first reorganization.

The teams of designers, digitalization and model construction experts
develop vehicle concepts and designs for future vehicle generations -
for example, self-driving cars.

'These tasks have now become part of series development for the
brands and an integral part of individual vehicle projects,' VW Group
Services said. The operational business of the Volkswagen Group
Future Centre Europe is therefore to be discontinued at the end of
2024, even though talks on its future are still ongoing.


Copyright dpa