WORKERS at nine Volkswagen plants in Germany launched a series of rolling two-hour strikes today in resistance to a programme of pay cuts and factory closures.

Volkswagen says the swingeing cuts are necessary to cope with a slack European car market.

The so-called warning strikes included the company’s base plant at Wolfsburg, where workers were set to rally against a cost-cutting drive by the car-maker’s management in which they face the threat of the company’s first plant closures in its home country.