Massive job cuts at Opel and Vauxhall
By
Marianne Arens
23 December 2017
The management board, works council and IG Metall union have agreed on a drastic reduction in staff and labour costs at Opel in a drive to make the company more profitable as is clear from a comprehensive agreement they presented on 15 December.
The first victims of the deal are temporary workers, who face being thrown out of their jobs. Contracts with several service companies are also being terminated. Older workers are being forced out through early retirement and partial retirement, while those left are likely to face a significant loss in income because of extensive short-time working and shorter working hours.
The management board and works council did not detail the exact number of job cuts and the extent of short-time working. Already in November, however, numbers circulated to the effect that 4,500 of the 19,000 Opel jobs in Germany were to go.
The deal, cynically referred to as a “social agreement”, marks the beginning of the implementation of the “Pace” restructuring plan agreed by the works council and IG Metall with the French PSA group, following the takeover of Opel and Vauxhall by General Motors in October.
The job cuts at Opel and Vauxhall coincide with a wave of sackings throughout the metal working and engineering sector. They come as corporations such as Siemens, Bombardier and General Electric are announcing new mass layoffs.
IG Metall and their works council representatives have highly praised PSA boss Carlos Tavares because he has not imposed compulsory redundancies and closed any factories. This also applies to the recent agreement. However, the WSWS has warned right from the start that “Pace” will “see massive job losses and greatly increase the pressure on the…