Opel: union IG Metall threat stellantis of a “mass conflict”

The German union is alarmed by Carlos Tavares projects, the Group’s Director General, who wants to obtain direct control of the German production sites.

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Nothing goes up between the Stellantis automobile group, directed by Carlos Tavares, and his German subsidiary Opel. In recent days, the disagreement has survived the very sensitive issue of managing the brand’s production sites in the Rhine and the maintenance of jobs. Friday, October 15 In the morning, the IG Metall union threatened the management of the group of strong employees opposition if the reorganization plans were to be put in place.

On 8 October, it had confirmed on October 8, information from the daily Handelsblatt, according to which the French group plans to separate the production sites of Rüsselsheim (Hesse) and Eisenach (Thuringia) of Opel Automobile GmbH in order to Transfer to independent companies by mid-2022. Both companies would no longer be legally linked to Opel in Germany, but directly to a Stellantis unit, for example in the Netherlands. The restructuring plan also provides that the Opel factory of Kaiserslautern (Rhineland-Palatinate) is legally split in two.

Stellantis, which has existed since the beginning of the year, includes 14 car brands, Peugeot, Citroën and Opel in Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Maserati via Dodge, Ram and Chrysler. Carlos Tavares is currently seeking to optimize Colossse’s production capabilities to reduce costs. The reorganization pursued at OPEL, said Stellantis, aims to “strengthen cooperation and flexibility in the Stellantis production network”, in order to “secure long-term jobs”. A total of 4,800 employees, all sites combined, should be affected by this reorganization project, more than one third of the brand-like employees in Germany. Stellantis said that the working conditions of all employees would remain “unchanged” and that “the existing collective agreements and business agreements would continue to apply”.

But it was not enough to convince employee representatives who have very badly took the announcement of this dismemberment. The IG Metall union fears that the German rules of “codecision”, which require large companies that 50% of the seats to the Supervisory Board return to employee representatives, thus circumvented. The tension is mounted by a notch this week, when another information was broadcast by the press. Employees at the Rüsselsheim Development Center have been put under pressure during interviews, so that they are looking for another job. The German press quotes an information note for employees that the DPA press agency could consult. The superiors would have threatened to relocate jobs in Morocco, where Stellantis has an engineering and production center in Kenitra. The management of the group did not commented information.

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/Media reports.