Weapon vigil at Opel. A new round of negotiations begins Monday between the management of the manufacturer controlled by PSA and the establishment committee (EC). However, the IG Metall union still considers itself to be vague about the intentions of Opel and its French shareholder PSA. If discussions fail, he now threatens to extend the controversial blockage of the voluntary departure plan .
“We need a concept that goes beyond 2020 and includes firm commitments on investments, numbers of employees, models and products for each industrial site,” Echoes “, Jörg Hofmann, president IG Metall union. And this concept must guarantee a secure future for the three production sites, the Rüsselsheim development center, the Dudenhofen test center and the Bochum logistics site “.
Moratorium of the departure plan
His statement highlights the union’s impatience with the manufacturer’s leadership, who affirms for his part have already presented a clear project for the three plants in Rüsselsheim, Kaiserslautern and Eisenach. If they must concede new sacrifices, the staff representatives demand visibility by 2025. But Carlos Tavares and Michael Lohscheller, the bosses of PSA and Opel, have a more narrow horizon. After nineteen years of losses, their priority is to restore margins by 2020.
At the heart of the discussions, the removal of holiday and Christmas bonuses, which benefit the 19,000 German employees of Opel, the partial cancellation of the 4.3% salary increase branch effective since 1 April and future workforce German factories. Negotiations on the Eisenach plant, an industrial showcase for the German Reunification, are particularly tense as the site has lost two models that it produced under the control of General Motors.
Government calls for reason
The IG Metall has a formidable weapon. Through the establishment committee, he obtained a moratorium until May 31 on the generous program of voluntary departures. Several hundred requests are thus frozen. “If there is no breakthrough in negotiations next week, the moratorium will have to be extended,” insists an influential union member.
“I can not imagine the EC refusing to let colleagues go,” says a source close to management. The subject will be at the heart of the Monday and Tuesday meeting, which is being held under the aegis of a mediator. Opel and PSA refused to comment.
The German Minister of Economy, who spoke with Carlos Tavares and Michael Lohscheller in April, calls the social partners to reason. “It’s always important to see the culture that exists among Opel or Peugeot employees and to find balanced solutions,” says Peter Altmaier at Les Echos. It takes a long-term perspective for Opel as a car brand and this perspective must be based on the agreements and promises that have been made. “