Mexican Media Brands
Union: Opel Cuts Won’t Be As Harsh as Those at Ford
Wolfgang Schaefer-Klug, the top labor official at General Motors Co.'s Opel unit, tells Reuters he expects a union agreement with the company to be much milder than the European restructuring Ford Motor Co. unveiled last month.
#labor
Share
Wolfgang Schaefer-Klug, the top labor official at General Motors Co.'s Opel unit, tells Reuters he expects a union agreement with the company to be much milder than the European restructuring Ford Motor Co. unveiled last month.
Ford intends to shutter a factory in Belgium next year and two more in England in late 2014, thereby eliminating 5,700 jobs.
Opel's assembly plant in Bochum, Germany, which is slated to close in 2017, is the only European facility whose fate is being discussed, according to Schaeffer-Klug. He says the union is seeking job security for Bochum workers after that date and a two-year extension to 2016 of a broader ban on job cuts in Germany.
Schaeffer-Klug predicts a labor deal at Opel before Christmas. Since early this year the company and its unions have repeatedly set and missed dates for concluding talks. Another union leader suggested last month that negotiations might stretch into 2013.
RELATED CONTENT
-
GM Offers Buyouts to 18,000 Salaried Workers
General Motors Co. is launching a new round of buyouts for about 18,000 of its 50,000 white-collar employees in North America.
-
VW Workers Again Reject UAW at Tennessee Plant
Hourly workers at Volkswagen AG’s assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., have again voted against having the United Auto Workers union represent them.
-
Young Auto Engineers Say Their Employers Don’t Measure Up
Only one-third of U.S. automotive engineers below the age of 36 agree that their work experience matches the way their employers’ portray themselves publicly, according to new research.