GM to continue production at all five European facilities UPDATE

GM to continue production at all five European facilities UPDATE

	Published : Tue, 17 Apr 2007 15:11 By : Agencies Print this Story

(updating with possible job cuts in Belgium and Germany)

ANTWERG (Thomson Financial) - General Motors Corp said it will invest 3.1 bln eur to build the next generation of compact-sized cars in Europe and will continue operating all five of its European factories but indicated some jobs would be cut.

GM Europe indicated in a separate statement that around 1,400 jobs could be cut at Antwerp, Belgium this year and its works council said at least 1,700 jobs may well be reduced in Bochum, Germany after 2010.

GM said the next generation of the Opel Astra model range will be produced at the plants in Bochum; Gliwice, Poland; Ellesmere Port in the UK; and in the Swedish town of Trollhaettan from 2010, securing the future of the facilities.

The company's fifth European factory in Antwerp will make other GM models.

GM said the current production at Antwerp would be cut to reflect demand, adding that 'the elimination of the equivalent shift would require 1,400 fewer people' at the plant. Antwerp currently employs 4,500.

A spokesman said no decision has yet been taken on the Antwerp job cuts.

'I know that today's announcements will be very difficult for our workforce in Antwerp,' GM Europe President Carl-Peter Forster said in a statement.

On Bochum, a GM Europe spokesman said: 'The manpower development after 2010 would depend on the productivity measures and the awarding of the contract to produce the new Opel Astra.'

Works council officials in Bochum said GM Europe is demanding that only 3,200 jobs should remain out of the existing 4,900 jobs in that plant because from 2010, improvements in production facilities would require only 15 hours to build a car instead of the present 24 hour period.

The works council and General Motors Europe's management will work out details of the agreement by the end of the year.

GM Europe has cut around 12,000 jobs since 2005 as part of efforts to make regional operations profitable again.

marilyn.gerlach@thomson.com

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