By Victoria Waldersee
HANOVER, Germany (Reuters) -Volkswagen's works council chief said negotiations with management over cost cuts must find a solution which excludes plant closures or redundancies, as a last-ditch round of talks before Christmas gets underway on Monday.
A compromise must be struck which is good for both the workers and the company, Daniela Cavallo told union members outside the hotel where the fifth round of talks was due to begin. "Workers don't want to go into Christmas in fear," she said.
Unions have threatened strike action at an unprecedented scale from 2025 if an agreement is not reached this year.
"If we don't reach an outcome within our red lines, I'm certain that workers will respond to the union's calls for escalation," Cavallo then told reporters.
Union representative Sascha Dudzik repeated workers' steadfast opposition to mass redundancies and plant closures, which the carmaker has said it cannot rule out as it attempts to adapt capacity to reduced demand.
Both sides are prepared for the talks to last several days, unless it becomes apparent on Monday that they are too far apart to come to an agreement this year, in which case negotiations will be paused until 2025
More than 100,000 staff at nine plants across the country laid down tools last week in the largest strikes ever seen at the carmaker, protesting against management's stance that wages must be cut and capacity downsized for the VW brand to stay competitive.