The management of the Volkswagen Group is demanding a wage freeze at Škoda Auto, extending until 2030. This move is part of cost-cutting measures across the entire VW Group, which is currently falling into a deep crisis. According to the trade union IG Metall, the Group’s management plans to freeze wages until 2030 for all 660,000 employees across the entire organisation. The Group has seen its total vehicle production decline by 14.3% over the last three quarters. (Škoda Auto was sold to VW in 1991 by the “new” Czech bourgeoisie, after capitalism came to the former socialist camp in Eastern Europe in 1989.)
In contrast, Škoda Auto’s global sales for the first three quarters rose by 6.1% year-on-year, reaching 812,400 vehicles – though growth in the most recent quarter was only 0.2%, amounting to 256,700 vehicles. Sales of fully electric vehicles by Škoda Auto increased by 41.3%, reaching 167,400 units. Škoda Auto currently employs 36,500 people.
The question, therefore, is whether Škoda Auto should show solidarity with its parent company, the Volkswagen Group. From the perspective of the Group’s owners and its overall corporate policy, the company is being pressured to do so – a mandate that includes a strict directive on wages. From the standpoint of the workers and other employees, however, this is an unacceptable restriction; it would force Škoda Auto’s staff to bear a share of the Volkswagen Group’s overall losses – losses to which neither they nor Škoda Auto itself contributed in any way. Capitalism, however, is harsh, unyielding and unjust toward workers and other employees, prioritising private profit and the competitiveness required to sustain that profit. In this system, employees are viewed merely as a significant cost item. Although the Volkswagen Group’s management invokes the need for “solidarity”, this is not solidarity at all; rather, it is a brutal attempt to shift the responsibility for management’s own failures onto the workforce.
The Trade Union Association of Bohemia, Moravia & Silesia criticises and condemns the Volkswagen Group’s austerity-driven wage policy – specifically the wage restrictions imposed by the Group’s management upon Škoda Auto – which works to the detriment of the employees. We stand firmly with the workers and staff of Škoda Auto, as well as their trade unions.
We stand in solidarity with the workers and employees of Škoda Auto – not a single penny of our wages should be frozen!
Trade Union Association of Bohemia, Moravia & Silesia
Prague, Czech Republic, 22 October 2026
