They have everything to understand each other. Jörg Hofmann speaks French since he studied in Paris and his Portuguese wife attended the same high school as Carlos Tavares in Lisbon. And yet, the current is electric between the president of the German union IG Metall and the boss of PSA, which he blames for wanting ” to go everywhere in force “.
Each person returns the ball and accuses the other of lying and / or intox. Seen from Germany, the French group acts as a cowboy ignoring labor law and local social culture. Seen from France, the union and the works council of Opel appear as spoiled children refusing to make the same efforts as their European comrades.
Attempting to refuse to implement the branch wage agreement, which provides for a 4.3% increase for German metalworkers , PSA broke a taboo. Opel’s 19 years of consecutive losses justify it, but this kind of derogation can only occur with the agreement of IG Metall and in return for a long-term counterpart.
The importance of co-management
The French group, which has managed to sign competitiveness agreements in Spain or in the United Kingdom, seems to have underestimated the weight of the German union, the world’s largest with 2.3 million members, and that of co-management, which gives the establishment committee (EC) a very broad power. Legally, it goes well beyond the “co-construction” practiced by PSA in France, which is rather information-consultation.
But at Opel, the EC defends the letter of the contracts signed with the former owner General Motors, which preserve the sites until 2020 and which PSA promised to respect during the takeover. The conflict is particularly exacerbated Eisenach , emblematic factory of the former GDR, where the staff accuses the French group to forget his promise by wanting to produce only one model – what the management of Opel contests.
Past suspicion
It is possible that the EC, accustomed to seeing the losses spun by GM, overestimate the financial capacity of PSA. But the reaction in Germany illustrates above all a classical misunderstanding in the European negotiations in Brussels: when the French want confidence, the Germans demand rules.
If the stalemate proves to be real, the dialogue between the management and the staff representatives is not broken. It takes place through a mediator, a former judge. And there is also no deadline for reaching an agreement, a sign that the conflict can drag on.
“Propaganda”
Whatever PSA thinks, the chairman of the EC, Wolfgang Schäfer-Klug, wants to be constructive. He accuses the French group of “propaganda”, but praises its production methods. And he did not argue over the one-million-euro bonus perceived by Carlos Tavares under Opel’s recovery plan, which is unpopular in Germany.
In the IG Metall, some consider it too conciliatory and threaten to get out the heavy artillery: a strike action for non-compliance with past wage agreements. In the country of social dialogue, it would be a first and an admission of failure, for the union and for PSA. And especially a “disaster” for 18,000 German Opel employees.