You didn't think the battle for Opel was over, did you? Belgium reportedly asking EU to investigate
When GM decided to hand 55% of Opel to Magna, you didn't think the Belgians were just going to have some waffles and call it quits, did you? Oh no. Belgium's prime minister made a call to the EU president about the deal, and the EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes told a Belgian newspaper, "If something happens against the rules, I will take action."
According to the prime minister, however, the rules have already been broken. Even though Magna has said it will need to trim more workers than expected, the Belgian leader said, "Financial aid given by a country that guarantees that the factories in their country don't close is against EU rules." The sale to Magna has observers screaming, "Politics!" but has made German Chancellor Angela Merkel look very good in the run-up to elections on September 27; with EU scrutiny all she really needs to hope for is that it takes them longer than two weeks to come to an adverse finding, if that should happen.
Opel labor, however, isn't so pleased anymore now that Magna has said it will need to eliminate more jobs than it originally proposed. Initial estimates put job losses at 2,500 workers in Germany; now the Canadian company is saying 4,100 jobs could be lost. It appears that Opel workers plan to assert themselves if Magna does anything differently than it said it would. In addition, labor wants "a veto right over job cuts, transfer of production or plant closures," which are the kinds of rights VW labor unions have. If you ask us, the dust on this one is nowhere near settled.
[Source: Automotive News, sub req'd]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
mktnb 11:39AM (9/13/2009)
Am I the only one that can't wait for the movie?!?
It's your classic corporation gets struggling automaker division, corporation loses struggling automaker division, corporation gets struggling automaker division back story. Or not.
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epi23140 12:00PM (9/13/2009)
The thing is, Germany doesn't want RHJ to buy Opel and wants to distance themselves from GM. It was mentioned in an article that RHJ would, in the future, sell the stakes back to GM but Germany doesn't want this to happen so they would rather have Magna buy Opel then to let GM have the reins again.
Jimbo 12:21PM (9/13/2009)
Wow, I didn't think it was possible but the German auto unions sound whinier than the UAW and CAW combined.
daleam 12:49PM (9/13/2009)
How could you not know that, jimbo? The UAW and CAW have been giving enormous concessions for years. It doesn't appear that "concession" is a word which translates to German.
adrian 12:50PM (9/13/2009)
I wonder if GM hinted to RHJ about the EU rules in order to scupper the deal.
PercyPricksworth 1:30PM (9/13/2009)
@Jimbo: Actually german unions made a lot of concessions few years ago. VW had a massive over employment problem a few years ago, so did Opel. In both cases many jobs were cut.
I feel somewhat sorry for the poor bastards at Opel. After the Bundestag has been elected and "Angie" will become chancellor again in a few weeks Opel will become completely meaningless.
As stated many times by german news papers Opel is a volume manufacturer without the sales volume. The reason which led to this problem: shoddy quality and unsinspired designs from ~1980s-2008. Sounds familiar?
Jimbo 1:54PM (9/13/2009)
Percy: I never said that they didn't make concessions (that would be daleam). I just said they are being a bunch of whiners. If they were anything like the concessions that the UAW and CAW made, then those concessions were probably reasonable. But if they really want their company to survive, more will be necessary (across the board, not just at the union level).
Mike F 12:14PM (9/13/2009)
I know Magna really wants this, but if I was them, I'd think strongly about walking away
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KC 12:31PM (9/13/2009)
This has definitely been the most dramatic sale of an automaker by GM thus far. GM should have just asked big daddy Obama for another seven billion dollars and kept Opel themselves.
I just hope that if Magna does end up with a controlling stake in Opel that that they are allowed to sell Opels in Canada.
Dear Frank, please buy Saturn of Canada from Penske since they are closing shop in Canada, and start selling Opel vehicles in Canada. It's the perfect fit. Existing dealer network, who's customers are already familiar with the Opel product line. You could save the jobs at the dealers that are closing, you could save GM the headache of taking over service and warranty of Saturn vehicles here after the Saturn brand is gone, and you could open up a new market for Opel products.
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Swede 12:49PM (9/13/2009)
Belgium and dutch comissioner Neelie Kroes don't want to hear it, but they know just as well as anyone that the rules are for less important countries, the big five do as they please. Germany is of course the number one of the five countries, contributing the most money (more than twice as much as the fifth biggest contributor, Spain) while recieving the least money back (altough the Netherlands have the lowest ratio of them all, their net contribution is dwarfed by big brother Germany).
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jv2k 12:58PM (9/13/2009)
So they force gm to sell to Magna and now they don't like the decision they made?
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Epsilon-Not 2:04PM (9/13/2009)
Huh? The Germans are the ones who forced the sale to Magna, it's the Belgians who are complaining...
RHJ (who GM had previously wanted to sell to) was a Belgian company, so it makes sense from that perspective...
Bloke 2:37PM (9/13/2009)
"RHJ (who GM had previously wanted to sell to) was a Belgian company, so it makes sense from that perspective..."
It makes more sense the Belgians are complaining due to the fact that Opel's Antwerp facility employs 2,500 people and was on several hit lists for closure if Opel was sold, despite the fact Magna has loosely stated it wants to keep the plant open.
Jimbo 3:08PM (9/13/2009)
And it's not just the Belgians complaining. The German unions are complaining because Magna is threatening to eliminate more jobs than promised. They were happy with 2500 because that essentially meant closing the Belgian plant while saving the jobs in Germany (even if Magna never specifically said it that way). Now that German jobs will be hit, they are complaining. What goes around comes around I guess.
Level 4:44PM (9/13/2009)
Gotta Love the EU in being able to tell a country what it can and cannot do lol....They might as well become states instead of countries......
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Andrew 6:39PM (9/13/2009)
That's the whole point of the EU, to regulate trade between the member countries.
In some sense they are already "states" within the EU, but they still retain far MORE power than any U.S. state. Different currencies and laws etc.
Oh, and the EU is only 27 out of 49 countries in Europe.
Andrew 6:40PM (9/13/2009)
The EU does *NOT* have a President.
There is a president of the Commission, however there is NO president of the EU.
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madmax 6:50PM (9/13/2009)
Im from croatia, and man i hope we never become part of EU.
The only big purpose of EU is to control everything. Like in US.
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Avinash machado 11:38PM (9/13/2009)
If only GM was able to keep Opel.
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Borger 12:15AM (9/14/2009)
The EU may just hand Opel back GM ... It seems the German government is just a bunch of noobs ... LOL!!!
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