Volkswagen's German workers are worried about the future

The carmaker wants to cut production costs for its VW brand vehicles by slashing jobs and extending the working week of staff at six German plants.

Unions want some form of compensation and more investment at the sites.

VW said it had proposed "possible" commitments but the IG Metall union said there were no "concrete" offers.

Ultimatum

A union official said the company had until Wednesday to strike a deal or it would break off talks.

Volkswagen is moving in slow-motion tempo Hartmut Meine, IG Metall

"We have on many occasions made it clear that we are interested in a solution for the difficult situation, but we doubt that all management board members are guided by the same interest," IG Metall's chief negotiator Hartmut Meine said.

"Volkswagen is moving in slow-motion tempo, so an agreement is not possible," he continued.

Ahead of the talks, VW warned that its German plants were barely profitable.

In return for a commitment to the sites, VW wants to extend the working week at six plants in western Germany from 28.5 to 35 hours per week, without an increase in pay.

It has offered redundancy packages to 85,000 staff in the region, but compulsory redundancies have been ruled out until 2012.

"We have put on the table possible commitments for products and components for every one of the six plants, that would be profitable under the prerequisite of a 35 hour work week without extra pay," VW's chief negotiator Klaus Dierkes said.

Asian threat

The first round of talks ended earlier this week with both sides far from agreement.

"We will definitely not accept a 'maybe' or 'we'll see' when we are dealing with securing the future for our plants," said Bernd Osterloh, boss of the Volkswagen works council.

Volkswagen wants staff to work longer to cut production costs

Struggling in the face of competition from cheaper Asian carmakers, VW has made plans to cut up to 20,000 jobs in Germany and shift production of its flagship Golf hatchback from its plant in Wolfsburg.

In a recent meeting with Wolfsburg workers, personnel boss Horst Neumann said the company had sold 2.2 million VW branded cars in the first eight months of 2006, and increase of 12.5% on the year before.

But he said the German plants "were miles away from our profitability goals".

The Volkswagen Group also manufactures the SEAT, Audi and Skoda brands.