General Motors (GM) has no immediate plans to close Opel auto works in Germany, the governor of the German province North Rhine Westphalia said Wednesday in Detroit, dpa reported.
Juergen Ruettgers, the top official in the province, talked to reporters after meeting in Detroit with Rick Wagoner, head of the beleaguered General Motors which owns the Opel line.
"We are so relieved," Ruettgers said.
Oliver Burkhard, of Germany's biggest union, IG Metall, also participated in the talks and appeared to be satisfied.
"Wagoner is open to participation by third parties and finding a solution for Opel," he said.
Wagoner himself did not speak to the press.
The possibility of closures emerged Tuesday, when GM told the US government that as part of its plan to survive and hang on to government loans, it would cut 47,000 jobs worldwide over the next year, including 26,000 outside the United States.
The company will sell or phase out at least three of its brands: Hummer, Saturn and Saab, GM said. German subsidiary Opel could also be on the chopping block.
Wagoner on Tuesday said that "everything" was on the table.
Opel Europe has been directed by Wagoner to work out a plan for long-term cost savings in the coming weeks, the German officials said. Among the possibilities would be a Europe-wide alliance with two other GM properties, Saab and Vauxhall, to give Opel enough heft to compete on the market. Participation by other industrial enterprises could also be an option.
Opel operates factories in Ruesselsheim, Bochum, Kaiserslautern and Eisenach.
Earlier Weddnesday, Chancellor Angela Merkel said her goverment's hands were tied until she heard a "concept for the future" from the company. She said it was up to the European arm of General Motors to make the first proposal,
In Zurich, GME chief Carl-Peter Forster and labour leaders said in a joint statement, "If it make sense for sustainable success at GME and Opel, management is willing to negotiate with third parties on partnerships and equity stakes."
Corporate sources said GME might accept some of the German states as new part-owners.
Workers at the Bochum plant were shaken by GM's call for US government funding and a plan to slash 47,000 jobs in the United States and other countries.
"We heard about it on the radio during the night shift," said one worker at the plant gate as he was heading home. The plant, in the former coal-mining city of Bochum, is a branch factory of Ruesselsheim-based Opel, the main GM Europe brand.
Five years ago, German unions accepted pay cuts as a means to persuade Opel to reduce a planned layoffs from 10,000 to 8,000 jobs and to promise to keep jobs till 2010, but beyond that date the future is bleak.
Bochum is part of the unemployment-blighted industrial zone in the west of Ruettgers' state.
...