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Opel CEO Nick Reilly calls for a spirit of cooperation
Company statement on today’s meeting with European Employee Forum
2010-02-01
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Rüsselsheim. Opel/Vauxhall management met today with the company’s European Employee representatives. Both parties discussed the next steps in conjunction with the planned implementation of the Opel viability plan. Company management fulfilled the labor side’s requirement and provided an update to the viability plan that has been shared with this group before. Opel CEO Nick Reilly reiterated that the plan was initially shared with employee representatives and has been discussed with them at multiple occasions since then. “Some of the actions we need to take are unfortunate and tough, but the reality is that we have to act,” he said. Reilly called upon the employee representatives to work with management for the good of the company in order to not lose more time.
In addition, the company would like to correct a statement sent by the Opel works council in a press release while the meeting was still going on:
- There is no plan to go beyond the approx. 8,300 job reductions communicated earlier in conjunction with the restructuring. The “additional 2,000 jobs” refer to employees who had already signed up to a pre-retirement part-time program in 2006 in Germany.
- Frequent repetition of the claim that the company was allegedly in breach of a contract does not make that claim any more true. This document clearly spelled out that building a small SUV in Antwerp was a plan. Given the dramatic change in the overall economy this plan had to be changed.
- Another claim - made after the meeting – that GM was not participating in the funding of New Opel is also wrong. Already at the end of last year, GM contributed € 600 million to the funding plan. This amount has always been part of the € 3.3 billion funding requirements that were communicated from the outset.
Reilly reiterated at the end of the meeting the company’s readiness to continue the talks.
