DUSSELDORF — General Motors (GM) would present the Opel restructuring plan to unions today, a programme expected to result in up to 9500 job cuts, the company’s top official in Europe said yesterday.
Nick Reilly said the company would inform “our people and our union colleagues” about the plan today. He did not specify when GM would go public with details but said it would be “relatively shortly”.
The number of layoffs is slightly less than GM’s earlier estimate that 9000-10000 jobs will be cut across Europe.
Of Opel’s Bochum plant in northwestern Germany, Reilly said: “Bochum remains an important part of the resources of General Motors in Europe going forward.”
Reilly had earlier met the governor of North Rhine-Westphalia state, Juergen Ruettgers, a deputy leader of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party. He faces a state election in May, and has pressed for the Bochum plant’s future to be assured. Reilly was to meet the governor of Rhineland-Palatinate, where Opel also has a plant, later yesterday .
Reilly, who took over responsibility for Opel and Vauxhall earlier this month, declined to comment on the future of other sites, but confirmed cuts would be needed: “We do have to go through a restructuring plan, and that means taking out approximately 20% of capacity, and 9000- 9500 people.”
GM shocked Germany and other European countries this month by abruptly ending the planned sale of a majority in Opel to a consortium of Canadian parts maker Magna International and Russia’s Sberbank.
Chancellor Angela Merkel said in Berlin yesterday that GM had repaid the €1,5bn in bridging loans it received from Germany to keep Opel afloat. “I can tell you the last funds (received by) General Motors have been paid back, which means that the Opel operation has not cost the German taxpayer a cent,” she said.
She defended her decision, saying: “It was absolutely right … to build a bridge.”