Belgium - Union leaders warmed to GM plan over Opel Antwerp factory - March 22, 2010

Belgian union leaders have warmed to a plan by General Motors European arm Opel to grant a stay of execution to its plant in Antwerp and push through fewer job cuts than previously envisaged. GM said it was now proposing that the Opel Antwerp plant be allowed to hunt for an investor until the end of September. That investor would have to take over by the end of the year, union leaders said, adding GM was now also looking to cut 1,200 of the 2,600 jobs of Opel Antwerp. Rudi Kennes, main negotiator of the ABVV/FGTB union and Opel's European deputy labour leader, said the plans were a sign of progress, though the plant needed longer than six months to find an investor and the job cuts were more than the 1,000 maximum unions had been willing to accept (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 3 January 2010).

English: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE62L20J20100322?type=marketsNews

 

This article was published in the Collective Bargaining Newsletter. It aims to facilitate information exchange between trade unions and to support the work of ETUC's collective bargaining committee. For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl. You may find further information on the ETUI atwww.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2009.