Chapter 920 The European financial crisis was caused by Changtian Technology
Wolfsburg, Germany, Volkswagen headquarters.
What is before Volkswagen CEO Herbert is Volkswagen's global performance last year, as well as Volkswagen's global sales from January to April this year.
If I could express it in one word, it would be appalling.
In the North American car market.
Volkswagen has been in a sales weakness.
In the past, it had to face competition from Toyota, Hyundai and a large number of local American auto companies, but now it also faces competition from new energy vehicles Tesla.
Therefore, Volkswagen has never expected to make money in the North American market.
Not to mention the European market, the automobile market is experiencing severe growth.
The largest concentration of global automobile companies is in Europe.
If Volkswagen can maintain its original share, it is already quite good.
In addition, in recent years, Europe's high-welfare society has become unsustainable.
After missing out on the Internet era.
Europe's economic situation has always been bad.
Except for a few small countries that will experience some economic growth, the economies of mainstream European countries, including Germany, are all in recession.
The direct impact of the economic recession is that consumers' desire to consume has decreased. Consumers have no desire to consume, and they are even less likely to spend a lot of money to buy your car.
Even if the user is willing to buy a car, the brand he buys is Toyota Hyundai's fuel-efficient, durable and durable model.
The public is increasingly disliked by the local people in Europe.
Therefore, Volkswagen continues to shrink in the European market.
In the past few years, Volkswagen has pinned its only global hope on the Xiaguo market.
Unexpectedly, Changtian Technology emerged in the Xiaguo market.
In just two years, the European, American, Japanese, South Korean and other car companies that had been working in Xiaguo for decades were completely wiped out.
The financial report in front of Herbert showed that Volkswagen suffered losses in Xia Guo last year and from January to April this year.
The amount of losses reached 3 billion euros.
These do not include unsold inventory cars.
If losses are accrued for inventory vehicles, this data will be even more ugly.
Affected by Xia Guo Volkswagen's failure to sell.
Many Volkswagen factories in Xia Guo have been closed down, employees have been laid off, and equipment has been idle.
And it is affected by the Xiaguo terminal market.
The upstream and downstream industrial chains of Volkswagen parts have also been severely affected.
The automobile industry is very particular about planning and supporting facilities.
For example, if you produce a complete vehicle, your supporting parts will be produced according to a certain proportion.
If you can't sell a car, then of course you won't be able to sell the extra supporting parts you produce. After all, there will no longer be after-sales service for this car.
Therefore, Xia's sales collapsed, directly affecting Volkswagen's European companies.
Volkswagen's factories in Europe have also been closed since the end of last year in order to save costs, and have not resumed production until now.
As many as 50,000 employees are affected.
When calculating the number of industrial workers and related practitioners involved in the upstream and downstream industrial chains, there are hundreds of thousands of people.
Behind these hundreds of thousands of people are hundreds of thousands of German families and millions of people.
If the income of these millions of people decreases, they will definitely increase their savings and seriously reduce their expenditures, involving tens of millions of industries and people.
Therefore, the sales of German cars including Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi (owned by Volkswagen) are affected in Xiaguo, which directly affects the entire German economy.
German economists predict that Germany's economic growth rate will reach negative 3% this year, setting a "new high" in history. The new high here means a negative new high.
While Herbert was in the meeting, there was a large-scale employee protest downstairs at the Volkswagen headquarters.
Protesters held signs and chanted slogans.
Demand compensation from the public.
The public is required not to lay off employees.
Everyone was filled with outrage, and many employees even cried when being interviewed by reporters.
The domestic media in Xia Guo have been promoting Germany’s blue-collar class in the past few years.
It is said that although this part of the class has not attended college, they have all studied in vocational and technical schools. They have very strong technical skills and can find stable jobs after graduation. Their income is not low at all and is much higher than that of the local people.
white collar.
Automobile industry workers are a typical blue-collar class, which is also the basic foundation of the German national economy.
But now this basic calculation has collapsed.
A reporter from the Deutsche Zeitung carried a camera and microphone to interview an industrial worker about 40 years old.
This function is called Bazel, a local resident of Wolfsburg.
Three generations of Bazel's family have been industrial workers, and their lives have been very easy for nearly a hundred years.
Relying on his hard work, Basil bought a house in Wolfsburg and a Volkswagen.
My wife works as a salesperson in a supermarket, and my son is currently studying at a technical school and will most likely become an industrial worker in the future.
Since blue-collar wages are very high, the Bazel family is considered relatively wealthy locally.
But this time, Bazel was laid off.
Due to large-scale layoffs at Volkswagen, Bazer was laid off.
Not only will Bazier be laid off, but it will also be very difficult for Bazier's son to find a job after graduating from technical school.
The collapse of Germany's auto industry has affected ordinary people.
"Sir, what do you want to ask for?"
A reporter from the Deutsche Zeitung asked.
Bazel said angrily: "We demand to return to work. I have worked very seriously in the past 10 or 20 years. I have never asked for a day off during working hours. We have no excessive demands. We just hope that we can return to work."
Get back to work."
As soon as Bazel said this, the disabled workers around him were also filled with indignation and shouted in unison: "We want to return to work, and we strongly demand that we can return to work."
"The public cannot lay off us so arbitrarily."
"We need jobs, we need wages, we need to survive."
The public's emotions grew stronger and stronger, and they marched directly from the square outside Volkswagen to the entrance of the Volkswagen headquarters.
And the number of people participating in the rally is also increasing.
A reporter conducted a simple and rough count at the scene and found that the number of people demonstrating at the scene may be as many as 30,000.
After the protesting crowd arrived at the Volkswagen headquarters, Volkswagen's security staff had no way to resist the crowd and had to request the police to be dispatched.
The German police are not so polite. As long as these demonstrations do not comply with the corresponding rules, the police will use their batons to greet them.
In just a few minutes, the scene was filled with panic.
The mass industry workers, including Bazell, were all knocked to the ground, lying on the ground whimpering and struggling.
Demonstrators were either arrested or beaten and dispersed quickly.
But this incident caused a strong response in Wolfsburg and throughout Germany.
TV stations and self-media have repeatedly reported on this incident.
The media also obtained permission to interview Volkswagen executives.
Herbert gave interviews to various European media in his office.
BBC: "Mr. Herbert, what do you think of this demonstration by Volkswagen's industrial workers? Do your layoffs violate labor laws?"
Herbert certainly knew that many people were demonstrating.
But he is a qualified CEO and capitalist.
Any decisions made are based on the company's financial interests, not from an emotional perspective.
Herbert himself is also very irritable. From last year to now, Volkswagen's profits have declined, which also makes him feel that it is in danger.
But when facing media interviews, Herbert still controlled his emotions.
Herbert said: "Volkswagen's recruitment or layoffs are in line with the laws of economic development. We have also compensated these laid-off workers in strict accordance with labor laws."
"Volkswagen's issue with layoffs is completely in compliance with German regulations."
After Herbert answered this question, his expression did not change at all.
It seems that the people behind those causes and the tens of thousands of families behind them have nothing to do with him.
The reporter from The Times asked again: "As we all know, Volkswagen, as the world's most famous automobile company and the largest automobile company in Germany, has been seeing steady growth in profits. What is the reason for this layoff?"
Herbert was not shy at all about the crisis his company was facing.
Because Volkswagen's crisis is also a crisis for the entire European automobile industry.
This cannot be concealed.
What's more, Volkswagen's executives and shareholders also hope to take this opportunity to put pressure on Germany and the European Union, so that they can find ways to support the public and help the public tide over the difficulties.
So Herbert laughed, sat on the sofa, and said to the reporters with some helplessness: "Why are Volkswagen and Volkswagen laying off employees? This is also a question I want to ask. It is affected by new energy vehicles, especially Tesla and
Due to the impact of Xia Guochangtian Technology’s new energy vehicles, Volkswagen’s global sales have plummeted.”
"Our sales in the second half of last year and the first four months of this year were not as much as a quarter a few years ago."
"Volkswagen has faced serious losses since last year."
"We have closed many of Volkswagen's automobile factories in Europe and reduced expenses, but we still have no way to curb the group's losses."
"The slow sales of cars will of course affect the operation of our entire production line, so we have also closed many car production lines. Those idle employees are also a huge burden for us, so we have laid off employees in accordance with the requirements of relevant laws and given these employees
Employees are compensated to the maximum extent possible under the law."
After Herbert said these words, the reporters who interviewed him had another feeling.
In fact, we sympathized with some of the unemployed industrial workers at first, and felt that Herbert and the public behind him were bloody capital who ate people without spitting out their bones.
But now that I heard Herbert introduce the situation of the public, I also feel that the public is in great crisis.
Reporters also know very well that Volkswagen is Germany's pillar industry. If Volkswagen is destroyed, Germany's economy will suffer a devastating blow.
After the interview, the mainstream media in Europe shifted their focus from the living conditions of industrial workers in the industry to the problems in the automobile industry in Germany and even the entire Europe.
Multiple media reports: Because of the launch of bio-based new energy vehicles by Changtian Technology, the European automobile industry has suffered a devastating blow. It has lost the Xiaguo market in a short period of time and is about to lose the global market.
The Economist magazine’s analysis is very objective, saying: “The European automobile industry developed a hundred years ago, which was an advantage for Europe, but from today’s perspective, this is actually a disadvantage.
The huge fuel vehicle industry chain, and the millions of industrial workers behind it, prevent automobile groups from various European countries from successfully completing the new energy vehicle revolution. The European automobile industry lags behind the world, behind the United States and China.
An inevitable historical law."
"The decline of the automobile industry heralds that the European economy will experience strong pains in the next few years, and may even lead to an irreversible recession. The European economy is already at a crossroads. How can we get Europe out of the quagmire of the economic crisis? This is a test.
The wisdom of the European Union.”
The media are objective analysts.
Some extreme anti-China media had no way to clamor against Changtian Technology's bio-new energy vehicles, and they did not even say the word boycott.
Because Changtian Technology defeated European automobile companies in the Xiaguo market, not in the European market.
How to boycott Changtian Technology’s bio-new energy vehicles?
Is it possible to call on users in Xia State to boycott Changtian Technology’s new energy vehicles?
Isn't this a fantasy?
But ordinary consumers don’t care what the Economist or the Times reports, let alone the economic logic behind the European economic recession and the unemployment of a large number of workers. What they think about is that now they are unemployed and have no money.
If you have income, you must collect money and get a well-paying job.
In the spring of 2019, Europe was very sad.
Volkswagen (including its subsidiaries Porsche, Audi, etc.), Peugeot, Citroën, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Skoda, Fiat and other leasing companies have reduced their factories and even closed their production lines and factories.
Skoda and Fiat even declared bankruptcy directly.
Skoda was originally owned by Volkswagen, and it used to feel like it was being backed by a big tree and had no worries about its future.
But now that Volkswagen cannot protect itself, it just told graduates that it supports Skoda.
The entire European automobile industry is in turmoil, with bankruptcies and production cuts happening every day.
The unemployment wave also swept across the European continent.
Demonstrations in various countries continued, with fire prevention, vandalism, looting, and zero-dollar shopping sweeping across Europe.
People took to the streets hoping to find jobs and income.
The New York Times had some gloating comments and said: "Europe's automobile industry chain has completely collapsed."
And he commented sharply: "Changtian Technology caused the financial crisis in Europe."
To be precise, they are all employees, because these people have been laid off by Volkswagen headquarters.
The public are capitalists, not philanthropists.
When the company's operations encounter problems.
The first issue to consider is of course to ensure the normal operation of the company and reduce expenses, rather than paying wages to employees.