Workers at nine Volkswagen car and component plants across Germany will strike for several hours on Monday, IG Metall union said, bringing assembly lines to a halt as labour and management clash over the future of the carmaker's German operations.

Thousands of Volkswagen workers were to go on strike Monday in an escalating industrial dispute at the crisis-hit German auto giant with thousands of jobs at stake. Its woes reflect a broader crisis in the European auto industry,

BERLIN >> Volkswagen workers will go on warning strikes on Monday at plants across Germany, labor union IG Metall said, marking the first large-scale walkouts at Volkswagen’s domestic operations since 2018.

IG Metall said its members would down tools for a few hours a day after the auto giant and union leaders failed to agree on how to cut costs.

An agreement not to hold strikes ended on November 30. "Accordingly, strikes are possible and also necessary from the beginning of December," the union said. "Volkswagen will determine at the negotiating table how long and how hard the conflict will be - the VW workforce throughout the country is ready to strike," it added.

Volkswagen, under pressure from high costs and Chinese competition, rejected union proposals for cost savings on Friday, just days ahead of planned walkouts meant to avoid unprecedented plant closures.

Volkswagen has rejected a proposal from labor representatives that they said could avert layoffs and factory closures. VW said it wouldn't have delivered the advertised savings. Strikes loom in the brewing labor dispute.

German Volkswagen employees have reached their limit. They are threatening a warning strike that could potentially escalate into a prolonged protest. On 21 November, after the third round of negotiations with the company's management ended in failure,