Labour leader Klaus Franz rescinded hundreds of millions of euros in cost concessions that workers agreed to on condition that Opel was bought by Magna, the Canadian group the Berlin government had long favored as buyer.
“General Motors’ behavior towards workers is completely unacceptable,” German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle told reporters the morning after GM’s shock news. “General Motors’ behavior towards Germany is completely unacceptable.”
Germany viewed Magna and its Russian partner Sberbank as most likely to preserve as many German jobs and plants as possible.
Half of Opel’s 50,000 staff are based in Germany. “General Motors’ behavior shows the ugly face of turbo-capitalism. That is completely unacceptable,” said Juergen Ruettgers, premier of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, home to Opel’s Bochum plant, which is seen at risk of closure.
GM Europe will now revert to a reorganization plan that envisions chopping fixed costs at Opel by 30 percent, a spokeswoman said.
Russia Putin signals battle for Opel not over Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin hinted the battle for carmaker Opel was not over, saying it was the trust overseeing Opel, not the board of General Motors, its parent, that should decide any further steps. The Russian government and the Kremlin have repeatedly said the sale of Opel to a Russian-backed group would show the readiness of US President Barack Obama to boost economic ties with Russia and reset political relations with Moscow. “It is well known that GM has earlier transferred the management of its European division to a trust, which has cleared the deal, and all further steps should be de facto decided by the trust,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov quoted Putin as saying. “Therefore the GM board decision is surprising,” he said adding that Magna and Sberbank would make a legal analysis of the situation. “The Russian government had been ready to share risks including financial risks to reduce pressure on the German government and encourage the deal because the consortium planned to invest in the Russian car industry,” he added. Moscow Reuters |
“Failure to reach the needed restructuring would result in the operation becoming insolvent, an unnecessary and undesirable outcome for all involved,” GM Europe said.
She declined to say what that could mean in terms of job losses and plant closures, but German staff feared the worst. “I don’t know what is going to happen here in Bochum if Magna does not take it over,” said one Opel worker arriving for an early shift at the plant. Another Opel worker accused GM of betraying its workers. “This arises from the mentality of American capitalism. They used to make treaties with the Indians and then quickly break them,” he told a German radio interviewer. In Spain, union spokesman Jose Juan Arceiz said workers would try to negotiate a deal with GM as they had with Magna.
GM abandoned the Opel sale on Tuesday, saying improving business conditions and the strategic importance of Opel had prompted the move by its board of directors. The decision left open the question of how GM will finance its plan to restructure Opel, the backbone of its operations in Europe and a key source of global technology for mid-sized cars. The spokeswoman said GM would repay a 1.5 billion euro ($2.21 billion) bridge loan due at the end of November if Berlin requested this. The loan helped save Opel from being sucked into its US parent’s brief dip into bankruptcy this year.
GM Europe has said it was counting on European loan guarantees to provide the bulk of the financing it needs to overhaul Opel. Officials in Berlin, which had originally planned to provide 4.5 billion euros in upfront aid for the Russian-backed Magna bid, focused on getting back the bridge loan rather than providing fresh financing.
In Brussels, a spokesman for European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes noted that the Commission’s role was only to verify that any aid complied with EU rules, adding: “The Commission can’t force member states to give state aid.” British Business Secretary Peter Mandelson said he wanted quick talks with GM to see how the new plan would affect jobs, including at its British Vauxhall plants. Countries with Opel plants including Germany, Britain, Spain and Belgium were originally expected to provide the state aid for the rescue of loss-making Opel.
Benzer Haberler 
International
