Newswire reports in Germany suggest that Opel’s union leaders have agreed to the closure of Opel’s Bochum plant, but not until 2016.
Opel’s senior labour leader Wolfgang Schaefer-Klug told the German DPA news agency that the plant would not be closed before 2016 and that employees would be offered a two-year, fully financed retraining programme once car production finished.
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GM Vice Chairman Steve Girsky gave an end-February deadline for labour unions to sign off a deal on Bochum. While the terms of the closure have been under negotiation in recent months, labour unions have appeared resigned to the closure of the Bochum plant. Last month, however, it appeared that GM was pushing to close Bochum as early as 2015, something that angered labour unions.
GM’s European operations saw a widening of losses in 2012 and Opel/Vauxhall, along with several other major European carmakers, is troubled by overcapacity in a region seeing further market contraction this year.
See also: GERMANY: IG Metall deplores Opel “hard line” on Bochum closure date
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