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Here in Format You Can See Posted by Ian Glenday [Email]  (#95)  [Profile/Gallery]
(more from Ian Glenday) on Tue, 17 Apr 2007 22:04:41
In Reply to: Re: Good News ...another link, DavidC  [Profile/Gallery]
, Tue, 17 Apr 2007 21:54:51
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April 17, 2007
After negotiations with workers' delegates. GM announced that the Belgian OPEL plant in Antwerp will eliminate a layer of workers - 1,400 jobs. "Some jobs will also be lost in Bochum, Germany. How many? we cannot say" said Carl Peter Forster, president GM Europe.
At this time GM has about 62,500 employees in Europe. About 3,000 of these may be eliminated. Since 2005 the cost reduction program has already eliminated about 12,000 jobs, most of them at OPEL.
“We must work to become still more profitable”, stressed Forster. OPEL had managed 2006 for the first time in seven years to jump into the black. This goal is attainable by hard competition, not by more layouffs, but only by cost reductions. Management demands more flexible work times, the elimination of strikes and smaller wage increases, in order to lower the costs another 450 million euro.
The trade unions had made concessions with salary and work hours that add up to about 290 million euro to rescue the plants. “The sum will be part of the package being negotiated”, said Forster.
ASTRA production, (OPELs best seller), will be at four locations
Starting from 2010 the new generation of the compact car Astra will be built in four locations,including Bochum, decided GM Europe. The plants in Gliwice (Poland) , Ellesmere haven (England) and the plant of the GM division Saab in Trollhättan (Sweden)will receive additional work.
The OPEL plant in Belgian Antwerp will lose the Astra. “We do not talk about a closing the plant, but there can be an alternative allocation from other GM brands such as Chevrolet”, said Forster.
Employee layoff notices are not yet discussed, but compensations in the next weeks will be negotiated. The plant in Antwerp employs 4,500 coworkers and builds the OPEL Astra as a Three and Five Door, as well as the Caravan version and the Convertible.
Because of improved productivity and a global model platform, GM needs less manufacturing capacity than has been previously used for the manufacturing for the new Astra. An annual production of 750,000 Astra cars is planned. GM will invest about 3.1 billion Euro into the four plants.
In Bochum according to data from the Bochum plant council, (employees on board of directors), of the 4,900 persons employed for current assembly work only 3,200 will be used in the future. Starting from 2010 only 15 hours/day might be needed instead of the current 24 hours, for the production of the ASTRA, said the Bochumer plant council president, Rainer Einenkel to the German Press Agency. Elimination of jobs in Bochum is to be made to a large extent by attrition. Further employee concessions in the coming weeks will be negotiated.
Plant council states: “Basic requirements have been fulfilled”
The total plants council, (representing the 5 plants), welcomed the decision. “Our basic demands were fulfilled, we prevented the closing of plants”, said the OPEL total works council chairman Klaus Franz. He required a basic guarantee for work for all European plants until 2016. “In the Bochumer work there is massive relief”, said Mr. Einenkel. “Now we must look so that this happens in the remaining years , without layoff notices.”
Already in the past years the employees had carried out a hard reorganization plan. Since 2005 in its money losing European business GM has eliminated 12,000 work places, the majority from OPEL in Germany. In Portugal the company at the end of of 2006 closed an OPEL work with 1,100 coworkers. The compact car Astra is the highest volume OPEL model sold. In 2006, according to enterprise data, 530,000 Astra were manufactured. (from Auto Motor and Sport)
_______________________________________ Ian 1959 93b 1967 96V4 1968 99 1974 99L 1988 900S 1988 900 1994 900S 1996 900S 1999 9-5SE, 2.3lpt 1995 9000 CSE 2006 9-3SC, 2.0T
, Tue, 17 Apr 2007 09:59:42
, Wed, 18 Apr 2007 14:49:23, Tue, 17 Apr 2007 21:54:51, Tue, 17 Apr 2007 22:04:41 <-- Viewing This Message
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