More Than Financial Challenges Face GM’s Girsky at Opel

Stemming massive losses at General Motors Co.'s Opel unit $18 billion (€13.9 billion) over the last 13 years requires more than cost cutting, Opel Vice Chairman Steve Girsky tells Bloomberg News.

One of Girsky's key tasks is reconnecting alienated Opel employees with the rest of GM, according to the news service. He says the unit sees itself as completely separate from its parent of 84 years. Girsky notes that Opel cars sometimes lack technologies readily available on North American models simply because the two regions did not communicate.

GM appointed top global finance and product development executives to Opel's supervisory board, and Girsky insists they spend time in Europe. He has traveled to Europe about 40 times in the past year.

Girsky recalls his initial frustration in trying to uncover problems and find out what needed to be fixed. He says, "Every time you opened a door, more dead bodies fell out."

Much of the Opel-GM friction has its roots in cultural differences, according to Bloomberg. Girsky was appalled that his first Opel board meeting started at 10 a.m. and broke for lunch after an hour.

Unions in Germany, where no auto assembly plant has closed since World War II, distrust Opel's American bosses, who plan to shutter a factory in Bochum. Labor relations became hostile in January when Girsky told workers in an e-mail that the Bochum plant would close two years early if union members didn't approve a concessionary contract. The company made good on that threat last week by declaring the facility will end production late next year.

Antagonism also has been fueled by GM's frequent changes in Opel's top management, including five CEOs since late 2009. Under Girsky, 14 of Opel's 18 top executives have been replaced since 2012.