Opel Unions Show United Front
Last week, Opel’s labor representatives complained that GM does not want to negotiate with them. Now it’s the unions that don’t want to talk. Today, labor representatives of eight countries sent Opel CEO Karl-Friedrich Stracke a letter. The letter consisted of only one sentence, written in eight languages:
“We will not negotiate with you on a local level.”
The tight-lipped missive follows plans by GM management to close the plants in Bochum and Ellesmere Port, and to export jobs to low cost countries. The unions have a different version: GM wants to play the individual sites against each other. According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Opel’s production chief Peter Thom had confronted each site with a catalog of demands. Sites that do not agree to these demands could find themselves out of work.
Jobs and sites are safe through 2014. The unions are not under time pressure. GM however needs to stop the bleeding of money ASAP.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
More by Bertel Schmitt
Comments
Join the conversation
Not to be nitpicky but shouldn't it be "in Bochum" instead of "ion Bochum?"
I don't blame the unions for trying this, but the end result might be that all of Opel sinks. Then the union(s) can declare victory.
'Stagflation' is occurring world-wide. Especially among countries who adopt legacy currencies (US$, Euro, et al.) The issue with the Euro GM workers is the same as it is for US/Canadian GM workers. They have been severely overpaid for far too long. The only way to recoup this cost would be passing the cost onto the consumer, or to seek a government bailout. Cut and dried. 'The chickens have come home to roost', so to speak.
These problems could all be solved by huge sales increases and higher profits across the board. Failing that, profitability be restored the old fashioned way.