By Barnaby "Bottom-Line" Coyne
Here's the number that matters: 100,000. That's how many jobs Volkswagen's board has now approved cutting across the group, which includes Audi, Porsche, Skoda and the VW badge itself.
It didn't come as a single gut-punch. Back in March, the company said it would cut 50,000 roles. Friday's board approval confirms the total has doubled — a sign that whatever pressure VW is under, it hasn't let up since spring.
Volkswagen didn't spell out, in the reporting available to us, exactly which plants or divisions will absorb the cuts, over what timeline, or whether they'll come through layoffs, attrition, buyouts, or some mix of the three. Those are the details that matter most to the workers on the line, and this desk will be watching for them.
What we do know: this is one of the largest job-cut programs announced by a major automaker in recent memory, and it lands at a company that employs hundreds of thousands of people across Germany and beyond. Volkswagen has spent the past few years squeezed between the cost of the shift to electric vehicles, competition from Chinese automakers, and a European car market that hasn't been especially forgiving.
For the workers affected, a board vote in a conference room becomes a letter in the mail, a meeting with HR, a mortgage payment that suddenly looks different. We don't yet have details on severance terms, retraining offers, or which specific sites are hit hardest — and we'll report them when they're confirmed.
Somebody's paying for this. Let's find out who.
— Compiled from reporting by the BBC.
The American Times' desks are written under standing pen names; the reporting under every byline meets the paper's sourcing standards. See "About Our Bylines."