Business & Money
The end of the Opel-Magna love affair? Photo: DPA

Magna seen cutting 4,000 Opel jobs in Germany

Published: 22 Sep 09 10:13 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/money/20090922-22075.html

Canadian auto parts maker Magna will cut more than 4,000 jobs in Germany when it takes over the Opel business of struggling US auto giant General Motors, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported on Tuesday.

Citing Magna's strategic plan for GM's European operations, the paper said nearly 11,000 jobs will be lost out of a total 45,730, affecting all sites and including the politically sensitive closure of the Antwerp plant in Belgium.

It said 4,116 jobs will be lost in Germany - 3,300 on the production line and 800 in administration - out of a total workforce there of 24,700. Despite the job cuts, Magna will keep open all four German Opel plants but the Bochum site will see nearly 2,200 jobs go as production is moved to Austria.

With the closure of the Antwerp plant, 2,517 workers will lose their jobs, the paper reported. Another 2,090 more will go in Spain, 1,373 in Britain at the Vauxhall brand and 437 in Poland.

Earlier this month, GM announced the sale of a majority stake in Opel to Magna and its partner, Russian state-owned lender Sberbank.

Magna was the candidate favoured by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who faces national elections this weekend, on the grounds it would limit job losses in Germany.

Belgium, Spain and Britain have all raised concerns that the Opel sale to Magna would see them at a disadvantage compared to Germany which has backed the deal with €4.5 billion ($6.6 billion) in state aid.

AFP/The Local (news@thelocal.de)

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Your comments about this article:

10:34 September 22, 2009 by vesparia
That is a massive blow, especially for the UK and the Ruhrgebiet. At least they're keeping the plants open here, I suppose.
11:24 September 22, 2009 by Portnoy
All of those dudes will get a head start on finding a new job. Everyone that keeps their job will just be looking for one when Opel goes bankrupt in 2011.
11:27 September 22, 2009 by Small Town Boy
Thank God we threw all those billions of euros of taxpayers' money at the industry. Otherwise these people would have lost their jobs four weeks ago instead.
10:28 September 23, 2009 by Mik Dickinson
1100 jobs will go in the U.K mainly at Luton basically closing the plant down.It all seems to be reversing to the beginning of the 1980's
17:00 September 23, 2009 by LeonG
They will get rid of the employees and replace them with manpower workers when needed. I've worked for the Magna autoparts factory here and there are probably more manpower workers than employees. Then if it slows down, it's very easy to kick the manpower guys out.
08:54 October 3, 2009 by jimquad
EU should not allow this. The Spanish and UK plants are more productive. They should stay open and the German plants close as they are not as efficient. Why is Germany allowed to use state aid by EC when other countries in Poland and UK are always prevented.
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