STORY: Workers at nine Volkswagen plants across Germany brought production to a standstill on Monday (). They went on strike for several hours in an intensifying standoff over wages and the future of the carmaker's operations.

Unsurprisingly, the VW unions are pushing back hard, with today’s two-hour strikes at factories in Wolfsburg, Hanover, and the EV-manufacturing plant in Zwickau signalling the first salvo after an agreement not to stage walkouts ended on Saturday.

The workers' union chief negotiator warned that, if they can't come to an agreement, "this will be the toughest wage dispute VW has ever seen"