GM plans to cut 10,000 Opel jobs

[killerrd2]

Looks like the Germans may get a little more angry...

GM plans to cut 10,000 Opel jobs

General Motors (GM) has confirmed that it plans to cut 10,000 jobs across its European car unit Opel, which includes the Vauxhall brand in the UK.

The announcement comes a day after GM said it was cancelling its September agreement to sell Opel to Canadian car parts firm Magna.

The planned 10,000 redundancies is broadly similar to the amount Magna had said it was aiming to cut.

Unite, the main union at Vauxhall, said it had no immediate comment to make.

Opel employs a total of 54,000 workers across Europe, with 25,000 based in Germany.

In the UK, its Vauxhall brand employs 5,500 people across two plants in Luton and Ellesmere Port.

Link:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8343517.stm

[mgescuro]

*snip snip*

Doesn't sound like it's a high enough number, if you ask me.
But I'm not so familiar with GM's European operations.

[Bravada]

Almost half of the 50K people GM employs are in Germany. Go figure

[ByTheLake]

What was Magna's job reduction target? I know that they had a number in mind, too.

[Bravada]

Same. Ellesmere + Antwerp + some Spain and Germany on the side

[jcgable]

Originally Posted by Bravada

Same. Ellesmere + Antwerp + some Spain and Germany on the side

Note they didn't announce where these cuts would take place. I think GM is dangling a carrot in front of the German govt. at the moment. They may be willing to keep job losses at Magna levels in exchange for the same loans...

[rsbaker]

Originally Posted by Bravada

Almost half of the 50K people GM employs are in Germany. Go figure

I'm sorry, perhaps I missed something, but how is 10,000 almost half of 50,000. 10K is exactly 20% still a big figure but not half.

[landjet06]

Time to get rid of 10,000 little soldiers in Germany!

[Bravada]

GM employs 25K out of 50K (VERY ROUGH numbers) of their European personnel in Germany. GM could cut 10K off the German workforce ALONE and still keep going.

[rueben44]

Sounds like they are trying to be amicable with the Germans and they should be thankful and move on. I am starting to really like the new Gm because they are making tuff decisions and being smart about it.

[Orbit]

Originally Posted by ByTheLake

What was Magna's job reduction target? I know that they had a number in mind, too.

I believe that I read the same figure: Magna expected to cut at least 10,000 jobs, but under their agreement with Germany, most of these cuts would've been made outside of Germany. GM will simply distribute the job cuts more evenly across Europe. This is one reason why many Europeans outside of Germany are not unhappy that the Magna-Russia deal is dead.

[Dr. Show-Me]

Somewhere I read the number to be reduced was 20,000. It would be interesting if all 20,000 were lost in Germany, especially among those striking protesters.
Like the re-negotation of labor contracts with the UAW, GM should re-open labor contracts with Opel unions to reduce their costs of production. They need to cut jobs, wages and benefits, perhaps even eliminating 20,000 German workers while keeping operations in other countries if their unions are more willing to reduce their labor costs.

[chevyman1973]

Why should we care? Those are not in the usa!

[johnny smallblock]

Originally Posted by Dr. Show-Me

Somewhere I read the number to be reduced was 20,000. It would be interesting if all 20,000 were lost in Germany, especially among those striking protesters.
Like the re-negotation of labor contracts with the UAW, GM should re-open labor contracts with Opel unions to reduce their costs of production. They need to cut jobs, wages and benefits, perhaps even eliminating 20,000 German workers while keeping operations in other countries if their unions are more willing to reduce their labor costs.

You're not taking into account that the general population of Germany and many other European nations values their workers much higher than we do. They see a more direct correlation between losing workers and losing economic power and the ability to buy products and sustain the economy. Therefore, if GM were to fire a group of workers for being "uppity" they would risk a backlash from a large segment of the country.

Originally Posted by chevyman1973

Why should we care? Those are not in the usa!

For the reasons I said above. GM is a global company. If you only care about what happens in the US than you're not getting the whole story. If that's GM's attitude, they'll wind up back in Chap 11 soon.

[Burnout Czar]

Originally Posted by landjet06

Time to get rid of 10,000 little soldiers in Germany!

Actually I'd like to see them get rid of all 25,000 German workers. There are many other countries in Europe who would be happy to get a slice of those jobs.