GM and Opel

General Motors has now confirmed that the head of its European operations, Carl-Peter Forster, is stepping down. It is said that Forster is leaving because of Detroit's decision to hang on to its European unit Opel/Vauxhall instead of selling it to Canadian parts company Magna and a Russian partner.

That decision has stirred anger among German politicians and Opel workers, who fear that a restructuring plan by Detroit will see many more job cuts in Germany than a Magna plan would have.

Opel employees, who downed tools briefly in defiance, have been backed in their outcry by premiers of the four German regional states where Opel plants are located.

Loss of expertise

Juergen Ruettgers, the premier of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) where Opel has 6,000 employees and an assembly plant, warned that hefty job cuts expected by General Motors across Europe would rob the Detroit-based concern of its innovative car designers, who include staff at Opel's main works at Ruesselsheim near Frankfurt.

"Without the German and European workers General Motors will not be able to construct the cars that it needs for the world market," Ruettgers said. Billions of euros in intended state subsidies could only be discussed, he warned, once GM submitted a "sensible and coherent concept" for Opel's restructuring.

"We expect that General Motors in Detroit will table a verifiable concept. And, I hope that that will transpire quickly. It should not take months,” Ruettgers said after meeting fellow state premiers in Berlin.

Ruettgers, Chancellor Angela Merkel's ally who is seeking re-election as conservative premier of NRW next year, said he appreciated why workers' representatives and unions had withdrawn the concession offers they had made as part of what would have been a Magna bid to save all four Opel locations in Germany.

The deputy premier of the state of Hesse, Joerg-Uwe Hahn of the pro-business Free Democrats, accused GM of publicly duping Germany like a circus animal "being pulled by the nose-ring through an arena." GM had, he asserted, had "broken a lot of porcelain" by dropping the long-intended Magna plan.

Loan repayment

In Detroit, Chief Executive Fritz Henderson said he was confident that GM would pay back the 1.5 billion euro bridge loan owed to the German government, adding that GM was also readying its plan to restructure Opel.

He told reporters he was confident that GM could find 3 billion euros for that, even though GM itself was recently saved from collapse and restructured using funds from US taxpayers.

"The plan will be financeable," he said. "Our financial position is better than it was."

He acknowledged that GM had "to work to repair" its relations with its European workers and trade unions. GM also intended to have a new management team at Opel and its British sister brand Vauxhall within "weeks or days," Henderson added.

Germany's finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told the Hanover Neue Presse daily that Berlin still felt a responsibility to help restructure Opel. The state could “not wash its hands of its responsibility” for Opel's 25,000 German workers, he said.

Hesse deputy premier Hahn said Germany's premiers were also in touch with Opel advocates at other European locations. "Naturally we have contacts with other countries, with Antwerp, Saragosa (Spain), and so on. Competition is always good. But it should not be a sleazy form of competition. That's the attitude of the four Laender.

Kurt Beck, premier of Rhineland Palatinate state and a member of Germany's opposition Social Democrats, conceded that he and other state premiers were focused first on saving jobs in their own regions. "But we don't want to withhold our solidarity in Europe and allow the workforce to be divided."

'False assumption'

At Opel's plant in Eisenach in eastern Germany, which has a long automotive tradition, the chairman of the council representing workers, Harald Lieske, continued to insist that GM's decision to drop Magna's bid and keep Opel was flawed.

"We assume that General Motors made its decision based on false assumptions, namely on the premise that workers would go along with it. That is a false assumption. We won't go along with it."

And in Russia, home to Sberbank which had intended to take part in Magna's plan, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was highly critical of General Motors, accusing it of exhibiting a “scornful approach” to its one-time prospective partners.

"GM did not warn anyone … despite all the agreements reached," said Putin.

ipj/Reuters/AFP/dpa/ap

Editor: Kyle James