Berlin: The US auto maker General Motors has
confirmed it will retain all four plants of its European
subsidiary Opel in Germany but will cut 9,500 jobs IN Europe
as part of restructuring to make the company profitable again.
The head of GM's European operations Nick Reilly today
assured state premier of Thuringia in eastern Germany
Christine Lieberknecht that Opel's Eisenach plant in the state
will remain open.
Eisenach is an highly efficient plant and "we want to
keep it as an important resource for Opel," Reilly said after
talks with Lieberknecht at Opel's main German plant in
Ruesselsheim, near Frankfurt.
Reilly had confirmed earlier that the Ruesselsheim plant
as well as two other German sites in Bochum in the state of
North Rhine Westphalia and in Kaiserslautern in the state of
Rhineland Palatinate will also be kept.
Before meeting Lieberknecht, Reilly held discussions with
the state premier of Hessen, Roland Koch, and assured him that
the Ruesselsheim plant will continue to remain GM's main
operational base in Europe and there will be no lay-offs there
related to the planned restructuring.
The Ruesselsheim plant is extremely important for GM as
it is not only a manufacturing plant but also a research and
development centre, Reilly said.
The General Motors' recent decision to shift its European
headquarters from Zurich to Ruesselsheim "is an indication of
how much importance the GM has for the site," Reilly said.
However, Opel needs to restructure the company and to
reduce its capacity by 20 per cent to make it profitable again
and to remain globally competitive, GM's European chief said.
He indicated that GM plans to lay off between 9,000 and
9,500 workers from its present European workforce of around
45,000.
Opel and its sister brand Vauxhall also has plants in
Spain, Belgium, Britain and Poland.
Around 25,000 of its European workers are based in
Germany. Vauxhall employs about 5,500 people at its two plants
in Britain. General Motors had caused shock and outrage in
Germany earlier this month by abruptly cancelling a plan to
sell Opel to the Canadian manufacturer of auto components
Magna and a Russian investment bank.
The proposed deal with Magna was the choice preferred by
the German government for the loss-making auto maker because
Magna had promised to keep all four German plants and to lay
off a maximum of only 2,600 German workers.
The German federal government and state governments had
offered Opel a bridging loan of 1.5 million Euros in May after
it looked almost certain that Magna would buy the company.
They had also expressed readiness to provide Opel an
additional credit of 4.5 billion Euros if the deal gets
through.
The GM said it had cancelled the sale because of
"improvements in the business climate" of the company. The GM
had decided also to keep Vauxhall under its fold.
Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel confirmed
yesterday that Opel had completely paid back the bridging
loan.
"The tax payers haven't lost even a single cent in the
Opel operation," she said addressing a meeting of the Federal
Association of German Employers in Berlin.
The chancellor defended the decision to support the
company, which was threatened with closure or bankruptcy and
said "it was a right decision to build a bridge for Opel."
Reilly is scheduled to present GM's restructuring plans
for Opel and Vauxhall at a meeting of European workers'
representatives later today.
He had already indicated that the General Motors was
expecting the European nations with Opel and Vauxhall sites to
finance a major part of an estimated 3.3 billion Euros needed
for the restructuring of its European subsidiaries.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, November 26, 2009, 13:40