April 2009 - At the end of March Volkswagen Nutzfahrzeuge (commercial vehicles) wanted to sack 213 temporary agency workers. They had organized themselves while taking part in a job training program. On March 19 about 200 temporary agency workers visited a meeting of the works council (Betriebsrat), because the metal workers union IG Metall had announced that there was nothing it could do for the extension of their job contracts. The works council reacted in a repressive way by calling the company security guards and asking them to push the temporary workers out. The crucial point is that temporary agency workers have to get permanent employment after two years of work. Volkswagen does not want that because it wants to keep a split workforce. On March 17, the temporary agency workers started a hunger strike, and shortly after 88 of them got another job contract. Meanwhile, at least 103 got reemployed, some of them with lower wages at the Volkswagen-subsidiary Autovision.