'No ifs, ands or buts'

Chancellor Angela Merkel and the chief employees' representative of German carmaker Opel have demanded a clear statement from the parent company General Motors on recent rumors that Opel was for sale.

Rainer Einenkel, chairman of the Opel workers' council, issued a statement on Saturday demanding that GM "deny the sales plans - no ifs, ands or buts."

"Weak explanations help neither the employees nor the reputation of our product," he said.

Merkel said through a spokesman on Friday that she was irritated that GM had not acted to set the record straight, and that she had "great empathy for the Opel employees who are put in a state of insecurity by rumors such as these."

Flying rumors

Media reports have claimed that the Detroit-based GM was once again considering selling its European subsidiaries, which are based in Germany but also include Vauxhall in the UK.

German car magazine Auto Bild cited unnamed sources as saying that GM executives had misgivings about Opel's viability and were looking at concrete plans to sell it off.

The weekly magazine Der Spiegel also reported that GM planned to sell Opel, possibly to rival Volkswagen or a Chinese automaker.

An Opel spokesman dismissed the reports as pure speculation.

In late May, employees and executives reached a compromise to cut Opel's payroll by 1,800 jobs, part of GM's larger plans to shed some 8,000 positions across its European operations.

Opel lost $1.6 billion (1.1 billion euros) last year. In 2009, GM abandoned plans to sell Opel, instead opting for a major restructuring to make the unit profitable again.

Author: Andrew Bowen (AFP, Reuters, dpa)
Editor: Kyle James