At Opel, the parent company Stellantis and IG Metall cleared several points of contention. The two car factories still in existence in Germany remain part of the German Opel company.
After strong protests from the workforce, the Stellantis auto company abandoned the plan to outsource the production facilities of its German subsidiary Opel.
The Astra factory at the headquarters in Rüsselsheim and the factory in Eisenach, Thuringia, are to be continued within the German Opel Automobile GmbH, as reported by the company and IG Metall. A corresponding collective agreement has been concluded. Eisenach will then act as a wholly-owned subsidiary within Opel GmbH, as it did years before.
At the Eisenach site, production is also to be resumed at the beginning of the year, as both sides declared. It had meanwhile been stopped due to a lack of parts and the employees were sent on short-time work. The plant will in future produce the entire volume of the Opel Grandland model, as Stellantis explained. The car has meanwhile also been assembled at other Stellantis locations.
IG Metall and the works councils feared for their co-determination rights at the announced spin-off and protested against a possible “break-up”. The workers had also received support from the state governments of Hesse, Thuringia and Rhineland-Palatinate, whose economics ministers want to meet with Opel boss Uwe Hochgeschurtz on Friday. Opel still has a component plant in Kaiserslautern.
Hesse’s Prime Minister Volker Bouffier (CDU), the head of government of Rhineland-Palatinate, Malu Dreyer (SPD), and Thuringia’s Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (left) welcomed the decision against the spin-off in the evening. “The Opel plants are important employers and have a major impact on the prosperity of the regions affected. The planned outsourcing and the four-month production stop have created doubts and uncertainty among the population, ”they said in a joint statement. “We are all the more pleased that Stellantis is giving the locations a clear future perspective.”
The Eisenach works council chief Bernd Lösche reacted with relief to the agreement, which, according to an internal communication, will apply at least until the end of 2022. According to a statement, Lösche said: “The Grandland exclusively for Eisenach now brings the binding commitment that we need in Eisenach in order to be more future-proof.”
The chairman of the IG Metall district center, Jörg Köhlinger, said that the spin-off and break-up of Opel was prevented and employment was secured. He added: “I hope that the management will steer the company more constructively and transparently in the future and that from now on Opel will only inspire employees and the public with innovative vehicles.”
Source From: Stern
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
