This probably was the big question Ferdinand Piech asked Martin Winterkorn, a question Winterkorn could not answer in the presence of the ever-present labor unions. The answer is in the last row of the table. Volkswagen’s global headcount is nearly double that of Toyota. As long as Volkswagen shows profits, and as long as the unions sit at the conference table, jobs are sacrosanct at Volkswagen. RIF is a taboo word in Wolfsburg. Even during times of losses, labor costs had to be saved the hard way, by attrition, by working only four days, and by satisfying the urges of the unions with callgirls.