About 2,000 employees from Volkswagen Slovakia have gone on strike as of 6 a.m. on Tuesday, the first ever of its kind in the history of Volkswagen in Bratislava. Modern Trade Union Volkswagen has asked for a 16 percent salary hike. On Monday evening, in an attempt to avert the strike, the company offered to increase tariff salaries by 4.5 percent this year and by another 4.2 percent next year. Trade unionists refused the offer. "The value of this company is produced by its employees and if the management does not want to listen to those employees, there is no other way of expressing our will than this one. We are ready to strike at least to the end of this week, plus we can take further steps next week and basically until the start of our plant-wide holiday, "said trade union leader Zoroslav Smolinský. Currently the average gross monthly salary in non-managerial positions stands at €1,801 including various bonuses, according to the Czech press agency CTK. Many of those gathered in front of the factory on Tuesday, however, say they pocket less than half of this sum. Data from various jobsites mention starting gross salaries at the level of €734 per month for production line workers, with bonuses for night shifts and overtime.
The current situation is causing growing concern for the former Volkswagen Slovakia Board of Directors Chair and incumbent Automobile Industry Association Honorary President Jozef Uhrík. "During my tenure at Volkswagen Slovakia, two such cases emerged in which unionists raised oversized demands and, based on the decision of the corporation's management, production was shifted to a different country. The first such case occurred in Pamplona in Spain. Because of a strike there, production of the Volkswagen Polo was transferred to us in Slovakia. The whole transfer was carried out rather swiftly. The second extremely similar case happened in Barcelona. It was then that some of the production of the SEAT Ibiza was shifted to us in Slovakia for two years (2003-2005)," warned Uhrík. Volkswagen Slovakia currently employs 12,300 people, while another 50,000 work for sub-suppliers. The Finance Ministry's Financial Policy Institute (IFP) estimates the carmaker's daily revenues at €6.3 million and 12 consecutive days of striking at the plant could result in an "impact that is seen in GDP growth, specifically 0.1 percent of GDP".
