Nine Volkswagen factories, an estimated hundred thousand workers, came out to strike throughout Germany, negotiation led by IG Metall, the major metalworking trade union, against cost cutting measures and a ten percent wage decrease. In response Volkswagen threatened to shut down three factories and layoff a thousand workers, rejecting the union’s proposal for a seven percent wage increase, arguing that cost cutting measures are necessary to keep competitive with other companies as manufacturing costs rise, from the general tendency of consolidation and monopolization.

Volkswagen’s CEO Oliver Blume at VW’s largest factory at Wolfsburg met with workers saying "As management we’re not operating in a fantasy world. We are making decisions in a rapidly changing world". Workers booed him throughout the meeting as he dismissed their demands, he then appealed to workers saying he grew up in Wolfsburg and holds the city dear to him, workers were not convinced. Thirty-five thousand workers at the Wolfsburg plant on December 2nd, led a two hour strike during their morning shifts, meaning that several hundred cars could not be made, declining VW’s delivery capability and profits. Blume stated that "We therefore urgently need to take measures to secure the future of Volkswagen. Our plans are on the table". pressuring workers to accept greater immiseration. Plans fell through in the fourth round of negotiations on the 9th, they have scheduled another round of meetings on the 16th of December. If an agreement is not made before Christmas the union said that strikes will continue into 2025. Last week’s strikes cost Volkswagen roughly ^40,000 per minute from a reuter source.

The district manager and major negotiations of IG Metall, Thorsten Gröger said "anyone who ignores the workforce is playing with fire and we know how to turn sparks into flames", however those flames will dwindle under IG Metall’s leadership and programme as they become more desperate for bourgeois validation and concessions.

The IG Metall’s Social Democratic led administration leans towards reform and collaborationism, ultimately working at the long term detriment of the working class. IG Metall even proposed a measure that would save Volkswagen ^1.5 billion in wages and forgo workers’ bonuses for the next two years if the company agrees to not close down its factories, proving their willingness towards making conciliatory demands in favour of bourgeois interests.

Although such struggles against dismissal, wage decreases and general impoverishment amongst rank and file union workers are meritorious and admirable. It should be noted that all benefits gained by such struggles will be put in question by the bourgeoisie when all solidarity and militancy is lost, as such achievements can lead to complacency and disarmament if demands are not broadened and struggle continued. The IG metall union has largely prioritized the interest of the national economy and manufacturing industry over the proletariat class interest, safeguarding the nation’s economic stability and consequently the interests of the bourgeoisie. The union also supports dirigiste policies to facilitate cooperation between the automotive industry and the state through a plan presented to the german Federal Minister of Economy, to subsidize domestic industry such as steel manufacturing and green energy, as well as advocating for the welfarist measures as per Metall’s eleven point plan.

The major calls in the Metallzeitung union magazine can be shown as pseudo-working class is pandering in their antiwar stances saying "Peace does not include supplying weapons to Ukraine and Israel. They only contribute to further escalations and many deaths. Diplomacy is needed here". Although true, they push it on the basis of concern for the national economy rather than the interest of the working class of imperialist warring nations or demanding revolutionary defeatism. The magazine also called for electoralism and anti-fascist coalitions stating that "Democrats must stand together and deal with each other in a tough election campaign in such a way that they remain capable of forming a coalition". in reference to the electoral gains of the AfD and BSW, calling the AfD "as the parliamentary arm of German fascism" and both parties "...henchmen of the Kremlin". although correct in pointing out the fascistic character of AfD and BSW, the solution is not the democratic popular front coalition against fascistic tendencies and a return to liberal democracy but rather proletarian unity against the bourgeoisie both fascist and liberal, as well as capitalism to which inevitably creates fascism through economic crisis.

The only way to combat complacency is to push the working class towards constituting itself as an indissolubly united class, regardless of trade, industry, sector or nationality, striving towards class unionism against the bourgeoisie and their parties, against the appeasement, opportunism and collaborationism of the trade union piecards. A class union that organizes in opposition to bourgeois legality and right, uplifting proletarian struggle at the forefront of class mobilization, utilizing the union strike’s potential in agitation for class unionism and labour militancy, rendering immediate victories as ephemeral without solidarity taking root amongst the working class.