The loss of up to 900 Opel jobs at the Figuerelas plant near Zaragoza seems to be a high cost for the country to bear, industry minister Miguel Sebastian told reporters after the company had announced its EUR11bn five-year turnaround plan.
“We have always said that everybody would have to make an effort (to ensure Opel’s survival),” Sebastian said. “But what is being asked of the Figuerelas plant, GM’s most efficient in Europe, seems to us to be high,” the minister told a press conference.
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“We will have to sit down with the unions and the Aragon regional government to see what this all means,” he added.
Figuerelas, which employs 8,000, will build the new Meriva small MPV which debuts at next month’s Geneva motor show and the workforce was told last month that the plant’s future has been assured until at least 2016.
The job cuts are among 8,300 being axed across Europe from Opel/Vauxhall’s 50,000 strong workforce.
Germany would lose more than 3,900 jobs from its total of 24,300 while Belgium would see the closure of the Antwerp site resulting in the loss of 2,377 jobs, and Spain would likely lose 900 and Britain more than 500 at the Vauxhall van plant in Luton.
