Belgian unions have sued General Motors’ Opel for breach of contract with workers after the automaker last week decided to close its Antwerp plant and build a forthcoming SUV at GM Daewoo in Korea.
“The relocation of the agreed small SUV models is the only reason for the intended closure of Antwerp…There is a pending lawsuit on this matter filed by the unions of Antwerp,” Opel’s European works council said in a Tuesday statement cited by Reuters.
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Opel CEO Nick had earlier reiterated he believed GM had never signed a legally binding agreement to build the subcompact sport utility vehicle on the Opel Corsa platform at the Flemish plant.
“It was not a commitment, it was a plan,” he told reporters at Opel’s headquarters near Frankfurt.
The idea of having two separate manufacturing sites for the same model, each with their own tooling and equipment costs, no longer made “any sense at all”.
