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General Motors’ Opel to close Antwerp factory, 8300 jobs to go

By Tim Beissmann |

General Motors’ European sibling company Opel will close its assembly plant in Antwerp, Belgium, by the middle of the year.

Forced to downsize after GM lost US$88 billion (AUD$97.4 billion) between 2005 and 2008, Opel CEO, Nick Reilly, said attempts by GM to find an alternative to closing the Antwerp factory were unsuccessful.

“In order to keep Opel going and have a sustainable future we have to take some of these types of decisions.

“You have to face reality. We are losing money and have to do something about it,” he said.

Unless an alternative is presented through union negotiations the closure process is expected to be completed by June or July with the view to eventually sell the land.

Mr Reilly earlier turned down what was effectively a 500 million euro ($783 million) offer from the Belgian taxpayers to keep the plant alive, despite still requiring 2.7 billion euros ($4.2 billion) in state aid to keep Opel afloat.

The manufacturer’s European works council is refusing to back the restructuring plan and believes the plant closure is a “breach of contract” and will lead to millions in extra unnecessary expenses.

Reilly confirmed Opel is not considering any other closures in the short term, but admitted production capacity will be cut by around 20 percent and around one-sixth of the company’s 50,000 employees would face the axe.

He said 4000 of the 8300 planned job cuts were expected in Germany.

(with Automotive News)


 
  • Whatever

    How unfortunate, poor workers. GM is killing more and more as the days pass. Hopefully they kill themselves!!!! Without Opel, GM would not have the small car platforms that they have (Delta), yet they are quite happy to reap the benefits of Opels hard work and development and feed them to the shark.

    Opel will prosper

  • jojo

    Maybe Opel and the German government & unions would have been better off accepting Fiats takeover strategy and proposal plans. They guaranteed no plant closures.

  • o

    that factory is 85 years old how sad

  • Andrew M

    Writing was on the wall long before the GFC.

    GM made a big investment in Daewoo manufacturing facilities. As if Opel ever stood a chance once Daewoo effectivly stole its business.

    Dont be surprised if Opel become imports in their home land eventually once more opel derived models get phased out in favour of the GM-DAT models.
    I fear it will be a reailty,
    But yes, not very nice

  • noj

    GM are closing the wrong plant, it should have been the one in Australia.

    • birdie

      i,ll pay thatone

    • Whatever

      I agree, Holden claim the al new Holden Cruze that will be built in Adelaide, Australia, in 2010, however 70% of the car wil come from Korea – sooooooo Australian

  • WTF

    So what’s stopping GM doing the same thing to Hodeln?