Germany's Car Crisis: Can the 35 Hour Workweek Survive? The German automotive industry is facing a perfect storm of high manufacturing costs, US tariffs, and shifting global competition.
As the sector sheds jobs at an alarming rate – Volkswagen alone plans to cut 100,000 positions worldwide by the end of the decade – carmakers are now turning to a familiar fix: making workers put in longer hours without extra pay.
This is not a new debate. The proposed workweek has been a contentious issue for years, with unions strongly opposing any move that would erode workers' rights and benefits.