General Motors will present to unions on Wednesday a restructuring plan for its Opel unit, with up to 9,500 jobs expected to be cut, the carmaker’s top official in Europe said Tuesday.þþThe G.M. executive, Nick Reilly, said the company would first inform “our people and our union colleagues” about the plan, and did not specify when G.M. would go public with details, saying only that they “will be released relatively shortly.”þG.M. had earlier estimated a loss of 9,000 to 10,000 jobs across Europe.þþOpel’s Bochum plant in northwestern Germany will remain open, Mr. Reilly indicated, saying: “Bochum remains an important part of the resources of General Motors in Europe going forward.”þþMr. Reilly spoke after meeting the governor of North Rhine-Westphalia state, Juergen Ruettgers, who is a deputy leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party.þþMr. Ruettgers, who faces a state election next May, has pressed for the Bochum plant’s future to be assured.þþMr. Reilly, who took over responsibility for Opel and its sister brand Vauxhall earlier this month, declined to comment on the future of other sites, but confirmed that cuts would be needed.þþ“To enable Opel and Vauxhall to have a long-term sustainable future, we do have to go through a restructuring plan, and that means taking out approximately 20 percent of capacity, and approximately 9,000 to 9,500 people,” he said.þþG.M. shocked Germany and other European countries earlier this month by abruptly canceling the planned sale of a majority in Opel to a consortium of the Canadian auto parts maker Magna International and the Russian lender Sberbank.þþGerman officials then demanded that G.M. repay by Nov. 30 a bridge loan of 1.5 billion euros ($2.2 billion) that it granted earlier this year to keep Opel afloat as a buyer was sought. G.M. officials said they would comply with the demand.þþMs. Merkel said during a speech in Berlin that the company completed the repayment on Tuesday. Opel employs around 45,000 people in Europe, about 25,000 of them in Germany.þþOn Monday, G.M. asked European governments to help pay most of the 3.3 billion euros or $4.9 billion it needs to restructure its European operations. þ
Source: NY Times
