Porsche labor boss attacks ex-union head: report

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Porsche SE (PSHG_p.DE) senior labor leader Uwe Hueck attacked his former union boss at IG Metall for blocking a deal that could end a public spat between Porsche workers and their colleagues at Volkswagen (VOWG.DE).

"I believe Juergen Peters does not want an agreement. This is about power struggles," Hueck told Der Spiegel in an interview published on Saturday.

Peters, who ran the union in Volkswagen's home state of Lower Saxony before later taking over as head of IG Metall, still sits on the supervisory board of VW as deputy chairman and representative of the union although he ceded his day-to-day responsibilities for IG Metall to successor Berthold Huber.

Hueck said it was wrong to originally agree directly with Porsche's management, that Porsche and Volkswagen would each send 20 representatives to the holding's works council when Porsche SE acquires majority control of VW as early as next month.

Since Porsche's workforce is a fraction the size of VW, Hueck declared in the interview he was therefore willing to grant counterpart Bernd Osterloh as many seats for VW people on the Porsche SE's works council as he needs to reach a resolution.

"The problem is that there is constantly new sticking points. We were often very close to a solution but then there always comes a new demand," Hueck explained.

"It looks as if someone in the background wants to torpedo everything, because he doesn't want a deal."

Hueck's comments and direct criticism of Juergen Peters are mirror closely those from Porsche finance chief Holger Haerter printed this past Tuesday in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

"This criticism is incomprehensible. Everyone at IG Metall is working to find a solution that allows appropriate representation of Volkswagen workers -- there are no two differing opinions at IG Metall to this," a spokesman for the trade union said on Saturday.

Peters declined to comment.

(Reporting by Christiaan Hetzner)