Eisenach plant: Thuringia offers Opel subsidies for site maintenance

04/23/2018

Eisenach plant in Thuringia offers Opel subsidies for site maintenance

DPA

Employees at Opel’s Eisenach plant: Thuringian Prime Minister Ramelow wants to preserve the location

Thuringia’s Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow has promised assistance for Opel if, in return, the Eisenach site is maintained. It is about four specific areas, said Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow on Monday the news agency Reuters. “These four topics would help the company in Eisenach.” It is about energy costs or land. These aids will only be there “if the collective bargaining parties return to the negotiating table,” the left-wing politician continued.

It is not going to bring the state of Thuringia with the investment decisions “virtually in blackmail,” said Ramelow. “We can not accept that.” With a view to the federal states with Opel production facilities, he said: “The three countries can not be divided.”

After the acquisition of Opel by the French PeugeotGroup fear trade unionists that especially the smallest German factory in Eisenach with its 1,800 employees on the loose. Opel calls for concessions of the workforce for investment.

Lohscheller wants to invest in works

CEO Michael Lohscheller has meanwhile confirmed the investment readiness of the company for the German plants. The example Eisenach show that the plans are already on the table, said the manager on Monday in a message to the more than 18,000 employees in the German plants. However, the plans could not yet be implemented because the necessary level of competitiveness has not yet been achieved.

The plans for Eisenach even represented an improvement of the existing collective bargaining agreement, Lohscheller reiterated, in contrast to statements by IG Metall. Already in the first half of 2019, the production of a new vehicle could begin, which would be produced from 2020 in an electric hybrid version. Reports about possible closures of the works Eisenach and Kaiserslautern after failed negotiations described the Opel boss as “horror scenarios”.

The IG Metall had the French Opel parent company PSA Peugeot Citroën Show stock market chart on Friday accused of extortion and demanded a detailed business plan for the coming years. The Opel leadership had demanded for the securing of just 1800 jobs far-reaching financial losses for all employees. At the Eisenach plant, where a major day of action is planned on Tuesday, according to the union, according to previous plans, around half of the 1,800 employees will go.

In a first reaction to the message, the Lohscheller Works Council stated that the product and project allocations specified in the collective agreements were not being complied with. “It is time for Mr Lohscheller to finally present a negotiable offer for Opel in Germany!” Contract concessions are not an end in themselves “, the panel said.

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