General Motors Co. and its European operations appeared closer to reconciliation Friday as GM dropped a plan to cut jobs at its key development center in Ruesselsheim, Germany.
Following a heated appearance last week, Opel acting chief executive Nick Reilly and Opel works council head Klaus Franz Friday struck a more cooperative note a briefing Friday at the headquarters of Adam Opel GmbH.
"Management and the Works Council are united in the goal of making Opel/Vauxhall a successful company again one with stronger autonomy that will play an important role inside GM," Reilly said in a statement. "We are following a clear plan for the future which will provide long-term prospects for our employees."
In addition to scrapping a plan to snuff about 550 jobs at the development center, Franz told employees that GM wouldn't restrict Opel's presence in global markets. It thus wouldn't be shut out of potentially lucrative markets like China.
GM needs EUR3.3 billion for its restructuring and investment plan for Opel, and the company expects workers to pony up with a contribution. Labor, however, has said it won't be willing to make sacrifices unless GM does the same. Altogether, GM seeks savings of EUR265 million from wage concessions from workers.
Franz indicated that an agreement in this area could be near, but didn't give details.
In addition, Reilly confirmed that GM's European operations is expected to break even in 2011 and record a profit in 2012, the person said.
Reilly repeated his plan to present a detailed revamp plan in mid-December. He travels on to Brussels Friday afternoon to speak with European officials, while Franz will meet with GM Chief Executive Ed Whitacre in Detroit.
