General Motors and the PSA Group are in advanced discussions to combine PSA with GM's European Opel activities. If concluded successfully, the talks lead to a going together of Opel with PSA. Information about the deal reached the workforce relatively late, after the talks were announced in the media. An Opel acquisition would see GM exit Europe, while transforming PSA Group into Europe's second-largest carmaker - behind VW - with a 16% share of the European market. The deal could have giant employment consequences (with losses up to 6000 jobs in Germany). PSA management has guaranteed that in the new configuration at least four plants in Germany will stay open and that there will be no dismissals till the end of 2018. Trade union IG Metall and the works council are relatively open for the deal, as they see more chances to go ahead after a separation from GM. The UK trade unions are less positive about GM walking away from the UK plants and workers, as the possible deal could lead to substantial job losses or even closures at the Vauxhall plants that are also involved.
English: http://www.industriall-union.org/ig-metall-and-opel-european-works-council ...
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/feb/15/unite-leader-len-mccluskey-warns ...
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-opel-m-a-psa ...
http://www.bbc.com/news/business ...
German: http://www.rp-online.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/die-ig-metall-macht ...
https://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/article162195278/Opel-Deal-soll-in-drei-Wochen-stehen ...
For more information, please contact the editor Jan Cremers, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) cbn-aias@uva.nl or the communications officer at the ETUI, Willy De Backer wdebacker@etui.org. For previous issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit http://www.etui.org/E-Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter. Since June 2013 readers can consult our archive and search through all articles in our database at www.cbnarchive.eu. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net.
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