Union: Opel Has Plan to Close Bochum Plant

The union leader at Adam Opel's assembly plant in Bochum, Germany, says he has evidence that the General Motors Co. unit has been secretly planning to close the factory, WirtschaftsWoche reports.

Rainer Einenkel, tells the newspaper that Opel plans to shift production of the facility's mainstay product, the Zafira MPV, to another plant. He contends the move would leave the Bochum factory with too little work to survive.

Einenkel says he will present his unspecified evidence at a worker assembly on Monday at which Opel CEO Karl-Friedrich Stracke is scheduled to speak. Stracke plans to tell Opel's 3,200 workers at Bochum about the company's restructuring plans.

Stracke has declared repeatedly that Opel will abide by its labor contract, which prohibits cutting jobs or closing plants through 2014. The company also has promised to make the Zafira at Bochum through that date. But it has made no commitments beyond then. The factory also builds an older version of the Astra compact car for eastern Europe.

Analysts speculate that the company will move work from Bochum to an Opel facility in Russelsheim, Germany, and close the Bochum plant in 2015.