Type
Internal restructuring
Country
European Union
Region
Location of affected unit(s)
Sweden, Germany, Poland, United Kingdom, Belgium
Sector
Manufacturing
Manufacture For Transport Equipment
Manufacture Of Motor Vehicles, Trailers And Semi-Trailers
29.1 - Manufacture of motor vehicles

4,500 jobs
Number of planned job losses
Job loss
Announcement Date
12 April 2007
Employment effect (start)
Foreseen end date
1 January 2010

Description

General Motors, the American automobile company intends to reduce its functioning costs and the period of time the production of cars. The management assesses an overproduction of more than 280.000 vehicles for 2010.

Thousand jobs are therefore threatened in Europe in the subsidiary Opel.

4500 jobs across Europe are planned to be cut up until 2010. The management intends cutting staffs on the sites that will be the least productive to produce the new car models, Opel Astra and Zafira and the next Saab.

Two sites seem to be already targeted: the Saab site in Trollhättan in the south of Sweden and the Opel site in Rüsselsheim in Germany. Other production site could be also concerned: Bochum (Germany), Ellesmere Port (UK) and Gwilice (Poland).

Finally, the restructuring will take place in Belgium where 1,400 jobs will be lost before the end of the year.The choice of Antwerp, according to Carl-Peter Forster, GM’CEO, was that Belgium is a small country with high loan costs and GM could not cut staff in Germany or England, the two biggest buyers of Opel.


Sources

Citation

Eurofound (2007), Opel, Internal restructuring in European Union, factsheet number 65227, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/65227.