Abstract

ESPINAL BETANZO, José Antonio. Co-management in Volkswagen-AG. Effects on a subsidiary. Intersticios sociales [online]. 2022, n.24, pp.265-296.  Epub Sep 26, 2022. ISSN 2007-4964.

This essay analyzes the principal characteristics of the VW-AG’s corporate structure and its effects on working conditions at its Mexican subsidiary. The main thesis is that the representatives of German workers in the company’s governing bodies influence factory citizenship in the Mexican installations through a process that begins with a dialogue between trade unionists in both countries that IG Metall promotes in the corporate structure, and whose decisions are operationalized at the local level. The profit strategies adopted by management, chosen by its decision-making bodies, have impacted the bridges of cooperation between the corporation’s different labor unions. The analysis of the relations between the productive and labor spheres and the articulation between the international and local domains form the central contribution of the paper. Research included reviewing German labor legislation, official documents from the transnational corporation, collective labor contracts, and the union statutes at the factory in Puebla, as well as interviews with Mexican and German trade unionists.

Keywords : co-management; corporate structure; winning strategy; factory citizenship; labour condition.