FRANKFURT (AFP) - Volkswagen's management and unions appeared no closer to resolving their wage dispute, after thousands of workers at two of the German auto maker's plants walked off the job.
"A breakthrough is not yet in sight," said Harmut Meine, who is leading negotiations on behalf of the workers for IG Metall, Germany's biggest industrial union.
"We are moving closer on some points, but on others our positions are still quite distant," he said.
As the talks, now in their seventh round, went on, some 45,000 workers held a three-hour protest stoppage at VW's headquarters in Wolfsburg, northern Germany, the union said.
Earlier, some 6,000 workers took similar industrial action at a plant in Hanover in an effort to force an end to the impasse.
VW is seeking a two-year wage freeze for the 103,000 staff on German assembly lines and a 30-percent reduction in labour costs by 2011.
IG Metall, for its part, is demanding job guarantees for 10 years and a four percent increase in wages. But it has signalled it is willing to accept a two percent rise if it can obtain an "acceptable" solution on the job guarantees.
More than 15,000 Volkswagen workers downed tools throughout the country overnight Sunday, according to the union.
11/02/2004 - 18:30 GMT - AFP