Opel workers rally against GM cuts in Europe (Arsonists Torch Berlin Porsches, BMWs in protest)

Opel workers rally against GM cuts in Europe
5 hours 29 mins ago
Christiaan Hetzner

Some 15,000 Opel workers rallied on Thursday at the German headquarters of their struggling company, demanding that parent General Motors scrap plans for plant closures in Europe. Skip related content Carrying banners reading "Free Opel" and "Yes we can, even without GM," they called for Opel's independence from the floundering Detroit parent, at company headquarters west of Germany's financial capital Frankfurt.

In Sweden, police said 2,500 to 3,000 people marched through Trollhattan, the southwestern town where GM unit Saab has its headquarters. Saab filed for protection from creditors last week.

GM's European brands are near collapse in the wake of the global crisis. Opel, 152 years old, with 25,000 workers and once briefly Germany's biggest carmaker, has been hit by weak demand and by troubles at GM.

The Detroit carmaker said on Thursday its European division had pretax losses of $2.8 billion (2 billion pounds) in 2008. It has said $1.2 billion of costs need to be cut in Europe, where it operates Opel, Saab and Vauxhall in Britain.

GM Europe's top labour leader Klaus Franz attacked management for booking profits in the United States stemming from Chevrolet sales in Europe. "Opel is not the disaster, GM is the disaster," he said.

Opel, the first European carmaker to seek a government bailout after the crisis began, needs 3.3 billion euros to keep afloat to the end of 2011, a source told Reuters last week.

The carmaker's management will present to the supervisory board on Friday a new business plan. Unions have been pushing for an independent European Opel/Vauxhall group that would include outside investors such as the brand's dealers.

1 posted on 02/26/2009 5:14:59 PM PST by Libloather

Opel, 152 years old, with 25,000 workers and once briefly Germany's biggest carmaker,

1933-1939? (before the volkswagon)?

2 posted on 02/26/2009 5:16:46 PM PST by 2banana (My common ground with terrorists - they want to die for islam and we want to kill them)

You WILL give us jobs! Wah! Wah! Wah! Infantile mentality.

3 posted on 02/26/2009 5:19:41 PM PST by vpintheak (Like a muddied spring or a polluted well is a righteous man who gives way to the wicked. Prov. 25:26)

Adam Opel started with bicycles and sewing machines before they build their first car.

Here is some History and Pics:
http://www.opel-specials.de

4 posted on 02/27/2009 8:59:29 AM PST by Kampfschwimmer

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