General Motors is mulling its next move following refusal by one of the four unions involved with negotiations at its Strasbourg plant to sign a new productivity deal.
Exact details of the new agreement at the factory in eastern France that makes automatic transmissions remain sketchy, but speculation has centred on proposals to cut wages by 10% and that GM could buy the site – currently owned by Motors Liquidation Company – for a symbolic EUR1 (US$1.29)
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“The agreement was signed by three out of the four unions but the CGT [Confederation Generale du Travail] refused to sign,” a GM spokesman for the GM Strasbourg plant told just-auto.
“GM has fixed certain conditions, one of them being that all the unions sign. GM Strasbourg has informed GMC of the situation that the CGT has not signed and now we are waiting for the GM decision.”
A statement sent to just-auto last Thursday (22 July) by the CFT did not pull any punches when it came to its reasons why it did not sign.
“Once more, company workers are the victims of work blackmail in the name of competitiveness and the future of the business,” it said.
“This is the choice – such as a reduction in working time and a wage freeze for at least two years or to keep jobs – that the GM management is proposing to the workers.”
There are some 1,150 staff at the Strasbourg plant.
