Audi Opens Talks With Works Council as Neckarsulm's Future Hangs in the Balance
Published on 11/12/2026 at 01:30 | Editorial boerse-global.de
Audi's management has entered exploratory talks with the works council over fresh cost-cutting measures, invoking a review clause written into the company's existing works agreement from March 2025. The carmaker points to mounting economic pressure and insists its cost structures must be improved as a matter of urgency. Discussions are being held internally and confidentially, with employees promised they will be the first to hear the outcome.
A Plant Whose Next Chapter Is Unwritten
Nowhere does the uncertainty weigh heavier than at Neckarsulm. The site must present plans for lowering manufacturing costs by June 2027. Its current models are due to run out at the end of 2033, and no decision has yet been made on what will replace them on the production lines. The plant is regarded as at risk of closure.
Roughly 15,000 people work directly for Audi in Neckarsulm. Add the wider supply chain and the figure swells to about 50,000 people employed at some 1,000 supplier firms across the region who depend on the site's output.
What the March 2025 Deal Already Covers
The future agreement concluded in March 2025 already commits the company to cutting 7,500 jobs at its German sites by the end of 2029 on socially responsible terms, while extending the employment guarantee through the end of 2033. According to a works council spokesperson, that job security is not up for discussion in the forthcoming talks — though individual pay components could be placed under review.
Exploratory negotiations over further savings are being conducted by management together with the works council and IG Metall, the metalworkers' union. Audi chief executive Gernot Döllner had flagged such steps at a works meeting in Neckarsulm in early October, where Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume was also present. At the time, Döllner considered the conditions of the so-called bad-weather clause to have been met.
Walkouts on the Factory Floor
The talks coincide with a season of union action. On 5 November 2026, around 6,500 employees joined a warning strike at the Neckarsulm plant. Days later, on 9 November 2026, roughly 15,000 workers downed tools at Ingolstadt and gathered on the site's Audi Piazza — the largest warning strike in Bavaria's metal and electrical industry, called after the third round of collective bargaining ended without agreement.
Addressing the crowd, Carlos Gil, head of IG Metall Ingolstadt, made clear that the workforce was not there to plead. Jörg Schlagbauer, chair of Audi's group works council, used the occasion to demand substantial investment in both Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm, arguing that it is the only way to secure a future for the two sites.
