Opel boss Michael Lohscheller (51) is open to the initiative of the IG Metall union to secure jobs in the auto industry with a four-day week. “In principle we are open to all ideas. The four-day week can help to secure jobs,” he told the newspapers of the Funke media group (Monday). However, Opel is currently using the instrument of short-time work, he restricted. A comprehensive structural change is currently underway in the industry. “You first have to discuss in detail which instruments make the most sense.”
IG Metall had discussed a four-day week to save jobs in the metal and electrical industries. “The four-day week would be the answer to structural change in industries like thatcar industry. This means that industrial jobs can be kept instead of being written off, “said the first chairman of the union, Jörg Hofmann (64). He spoke of”a certain wage compensation for the employeesso that employees can afford it “.
OpelAccording to Lohscheller, since the takeover by the French PSA group, it has not only significantly reduced the number of employees, but also significantly streamlined the management level. “The stairs are swept from above. We have removed entire levels of the hierarchy,” said the Opel boss. “Instead of 20 managers, only 9 report directly to me.” In Europe, all country leaders have also been replaced.
For the upcoming merger of the Opel parent company PPE With Fiat Chrysler Lohscheller sees the manufacturer well-equipped to become the fourth largest car manufacturer in the world, which will be called Stellantis. “We are in a good position as a profitable company, not with 20 years of losses like under our old owner.” It is true that in such a large corporation you have to stand up for your own interests even more and fight for them. The merger is a great opportunity for Opel with a view to global sales: “Opel will be the German brand in the new group.”
According to Lohscheller, production at the Eisenach plant in Thuringia will continue to ramp up. From autumn on, production will be in two-shift operation again, said the Opel boss. In March production was due to corona-Pandemic temporarily suspended and resumed in single-shift operation in June. Now the incoming orders are picking up again. “The Grandland X and its hybrid variant are extremely well received,” said Lohscheller. After difficulties in March and April, the development is clearly increasing.
Opel competitor Daimler, on the other hand, recently refused a four-day week. “A four-day week with wage compensation, as demanded by IG Metall, is neither expedient nor economically viable in view of the situation in the automotive industry,” said HR director Wilfried Porth (61). It is a matter of securing the costs, the transformation of the company and the demand in the long term and “nevertheless successfully using the opportunities that rising sales figures will offer us again in the future,” emphasized the manager.