Magna International Inc. is seeking "extreme" concessions from workers at General Motors Corp.'s Opel division less than a month after making pledges that won Germany's backing for acquiring the unit, a union official said.
"Magna is now pushing extreme demands," Armin Schild, a member of Opel's supervisory board and an official of Germany's IG Metall labor union, said today by telephone. "I have no illusions that these will cost workers blood, sweat and tears."
Schild, speaking after an eight-hour board meeting at Opel's Ruesselsheim, Germany-based headquarters, likened the Canadian car-parts maker's approach to a "power saw." He declined to specify the concessions sought. Magna agreed not to close Opel factories in Germany when it won the nod May 30.
Aurora, Ontario-based Magna is leading the group negotiating to buy the division, which includes the Vauxhall brand in Britain. GM is engaged in talks with buyout firm RHJ International SA and Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co. that may lead to the signing of non-binding memoranda of understanding, according to people familiar with the negotiations.
"The supervisory board was informed today that BAIC and RHJ have now been granted access to business data and that talks are under way," Schild said. "The endorsement of Magna was premature and agreed in unnecessary panic."
Magna spokesman Daniel Witzani wasn't immediately available for comment when contacted by phone.
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