German Government: No Bailout For Opel, Management To Blame
A day after GM’s announcement to close down most of its Bochum plant, Germany’s vice chancellor and economy Minister Philipp Rösler blamed GM’s management for Opel’s misery. German carmakers like Volkswagen, BMW or Daimler are relatively unaffected by the European contagion, because they are successful in export markets. “It has been a mistake that Opel was more or less kept out of the growth market China,” Rösler told the Rheinische Post. “There will be no financial help, because it won’t solve the management problems.”
Interim CEO Thomas Sedran was surrounded by a phalanx of security guards when he made his very short announcement yesterday. Outside, an armada of police was ready to intervene. The workers were peaceful, the security guards were not. A shop steward was knocked to the floor and choked by security guards, works council chief Rainer Einenkel told Der Spiegel. The union considered going on strike, but decided against it because there will be “short work” anyway in January.
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.
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Who killed Opel? I think it was Rick Wagoner in the Board Room with a lead pipe.
I hope they offer all the engineering staff a job in Detroit or elsewhere in GM. let Germany suffer the brain drain.
Opel/Vauxhall is just one (conjoined twins?) of GM's brands, a regional product from an integrated Global company. GM is doing well enough, in terms of sales, to be #1 in the two largest markets in the world, and #1 or #2 in all of their regions besides Europe, where GM earns only 4th place. GM has carried Opel, but continual declines in the regions total sales mean capacity must be reduced. Opel is 3rd in Germany after VW and MB Vauxhall is 2nd in England, afer Ford Opel's 1.2 million volume in Europe is similar in scale to Honda's US sales. They just have problems reducing workers and plants in line with sales volumes to restore profitability. I wonder if VW factories in Deutchland, isolated from the rest of VW, are all that much more profitable than Opel's. They don't break out that figure, to the best of my knowledge. GM overall made a lot of money, too. Closing Bochum is a move in the right direction. Is it any wonder a politician would decry the company that is taking German jobs? The truth is, GM needs political change to reduce labor unions' stranglehold on industry in Germany.
As an aside, why has TTAC completely ignored the death of Dr Alex Moulton?