VW chief raps Porsche labor boss in Heilbronner Stimme interview

BERLIN (Reuters) - Volkswagen CEO Matthias Mueller strongly criticized Porsche's labor chief in German daily Heilbronner Stimme on Tuesday over public remarks about Audi's management, in a sign of growing tensions within the automotive group.

Uwe Hueck, head of Porsche's works council and a member of VW's supervisory board, had given an interview with Bild am Sonntag newspaper in which he called for Audi managers to be dismissed over statements made about the brand's diesel engines.

"The comments of Uwe Hueck are anything but helpful," VW chief Mueller told Heilbronner Stimme. "The supervisory board certainly needs no lecturing on how it has to do its job."

The nature and manner of Hueck's comments do not chime with VW's corporate culture, said Mueller, who ran Porsche as CEO for five years before taking the helm of Europe's largest automotive group a week after its emissions scandal broke in September 2015.

Separately, Mueller declined comment on allegations that VW and other German carmakers operated a wide-ranging cartel, but pledged the company's cooperation with authorities.

(Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by David Goodman)