"Extremely embarrassing and politically unacceptable": German union IG Metall condemns Audi CEO's presence at Donald Trump's rally
Audi's CEO, Gernot Döllner, was present on October 24 at a Donald Trump rally in the U.S. state of Georgia, a trip that, according to the president of the German union IG Metall, flagrantly violates the group’s…
The president of the powerful German union IG Metall, Christiane Benner, strongly criticized on Monday the participation of the Audi boss in an electoral rally of Donald Trump, during which an investment of several billion dollars from the manufacturer in the United States was announced. “The way in which Audi boss Gernot Döllner “presented himself and Audi in the United States is extremely embarrassing, politically unacceptable,” Christiane Benner said in a statement. According to her, the leader "flagrantly" violated the group's internal rules imposing political neutrality in the run-up to elections.
Towards an investment of 4.2 billion dollars Gernot Döllner appeared on Saturday alongside the American president during a Republican campaign meeting in Georgia, where Donald Trump announced an investment of 4.2 billion dollars from the German manufacturer to build its first American factory there. Audi immediately confirmed this project, which should enable the production of 200,000 vehicles per year and the creation of around 4.
500 jobs. Beyond her charge against the boss of the brand with the rings, the union leader above all emphasized that the project had not yet passed all the stages of validation within the Volkswagen group. “The final decision” regarding a new factory in the United States remains subject to the approval of the competent bodies and the final vote will be made “rightly” by the Volkswagen supervisory board, she insisted.
This investment by Audi comes at a time when its parent company Volkswagen is undertaking a vast program of savings and job cuts in Germany. The Audi factory in Neckarsulm, which employs around 15,000 people, is particularly threatened.
And jobs in Germany could also disappear if certain models of the brand were produced in the future American factory. Audi's German rivals already operate major factories in the United States, BMW in South Carolina and Mercedes-Benz in Alabama. However, these establishments were decided in a very different economic and commercial context, well before the current wave of investment announcements encouraged by the Trump administration's tariffs.
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- BFM Business26 Oct, 09:23
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