Volkswagen's Loudest Critic Is a Company Leader

Any doubt whether Volkswagen has lost its way in North America all but vanished this week when the company’s top labor boss blasted its U.S. strategy.

Bernd Osterloh, head of Volkswagen’s works council and a member of its supervisory board, told reporters in Germany that “the situation in the U.S. is a disaster.” He said the company wasn’t likely to meet its goal of selling 1 million vehicles in the U.S. by 2018 and its struggles will continue in the country for at least two more years. “The worm has to taste good to the fish, not the fisherman,” Osterloh told reporters. “Sometimes I have the impression that it’s the other way around with us.”