When news first broke that General Motors was negotiating the sale of its Opel division to French automaker PSA Group, initial signs suggested that the Opel’s four plants in Germany were safe from potential closures or job cuts by its new owner in the near future. This has now been confirmed, as PSA chief executive Carlos Tavares provided job and investment guarantees surrounding German Opel facilities to Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel during a phone call earlier this week.
Tavares also confirmed during the call that Opel would remain an independent firm in the merged company.
“PSA Chief (Carlos) Tavares stressed that both companies would complement each other well,” said Steffen Seibert, a spokesman for Ms. Merkel. “He stressed to the chancellor that PSA would preserve the independence of Opel in a merged company and would give plant, investment and job guarantees,” Seibert added.
If the sale of Opel to PSA is finalized, existing Opel-Vauxhall plants are at risk of being shut down and workers laid off as the French automaker looks to cut costs by improving economies of scale. Meanwhile, the ability to retain existing jobs in Germany or add new ones is of high importance to Merkel, who is seeking fourth term re-election as Germany’s Chancellor. Of the 38,000 people employed by GM Europe, roughly half are employed in Germany.
GM and PSA are reportedly aiming to wrap up negotiations and officially announce a deal before the start of the Geneva Auto Show, which kicks off March 8.
Comments
Meanwhile British industry and British jobs hang in the balance. Britain needs to get smart and work to prevent our industrial prowess from vanishing completely. We need a leader like Donald Trump here in (Formerly Great) Britain!
If the people of Great Britain didn’t thumb their noses at chevy then they could have been building Chevy’s for GM locally to be sold in Europe. GM wanted chevy to stay in Europe but you guys wanted to play hard ball by icing out the chevy brand saying I will only buy a opel/vauxhall. Now you have to pay the price and you can’t have your cake and eat it too.
Your going to be sold to PSA a french company, and it makes me happy to know that now you have to get on your knees and beg to GM and PSA to keep your jobs intact.
Had you just given GM what they wanted years ago, chevy would have a decent market share in Europe and your jobs would not be in hanging in the balance because GM Europe would be profitable and have no reason to sale Opel/Vauxhall.
Good business practice. If all else fails blame the customer.
Remember that we were getting rebadged Daewoos, not real Chevrolets.
Go away, Brian Ritter.
These socialized Europeans can’t run $hit…and government demands are prohibitive. They need a euro-Donald!
You don’t like my comments because there is a bit of truth to it! The customer refuses to buy a companies vehicles and then complains when that company sells to another company and the jobs go away with it!
The customers have a level of responsablity if they want to keep the local jobs!
Wrong again. The consumer has no responsibilities to uphold or promote a business. You’re confusing (again) a consumer with a worker.
Workers simply build the car and are paid for their labour.
Consumers want a products that sits between their needs/desires at the price they can afford.
There is NO OBLIGATION that the worker or the consumer is to spend their money on buying only from national automakers. There never was such an obligation in any first-world nation, and there never will be. Not even in China or the US.
Might be the case in North Korea, but that’s the kind of insular and closed protectionism you’re talking about.
Do you still think GM should operate like a lottery and reward you for owning only GM products for 20+ years?
If the people in the community do not support the local company then they have no right to complain when that company leaves and takes jobs with it.
You don’t have to buy only locally but if jobs go away then the people have no one to blame but themselves.
“You don’t have to buy only locally but if jobs go away then the people have no one to blame but themselves.”
Or you can blame the company management for making uncompetitive products that performed poorly in the marketplace, that caused a loss in revenue, that caused them to not meet performance projections, that caused them to scale back future product plans, that in turn cause a loss of employment options for a region.
You’re trying hard to heap the blame on millions of consumers when the blame for has always been on the two dozen board of directors. If they can’t make a compelling product, they alone are responsible for the losses, even if those loses are assembly jobs in their factories.
You’d blame the bees for not pollinating your flowers when all you’ve planted is manure. You are THAT deluded.
I agree that we are partly to blame for the loss of jobs but not for the reasons you stated. As Grawdaddy said, poor management at GM is the main problem here, not consumer preference. What we are to blame for is electing stupid politicians who have created an environment in our country where industry cannot thrive, politicians who believed that the financial services sector in London was all Britain really needed and that anyone outside “the bubble” could just go to hell.
The worst bit is that even after the Brexit vote they still haven’t learned their lesson. We want our jobs back! We want our industry back! We want our country back! They say they’ll “do whatever they can” for Vauxhall but I don’t see anyone here bidding for them. Nor do I see the government rolling back regulation or taxes to make the country more attractive for business. They’re making the same mistakes now that they were making before the referendum and now there’s not a whole lot we can do about it.
This is where you both are wrong, management can’t be blamed with the people in Europe said we will not buy anything from GM except opel/vauxhall. So with this info GM can’t win over customers no matter how good the vehicles are.
This is why I say the people must except the blame. Now those same people who would not by a chevy Buick Cadillac are begging GM to make sure they keep their jobs.
If you didn’t help support GM before then how can you ask GM for help now?
“This is where you both are wrong, management can’t be blamed with the people in Europe said we will not buy anything from GM except opel/vauxhall. So with this info GM can’t win over customers no matter how good the vehicles are. ”
Wrong. You’re assuming that Opel/Vaux were the ONLY options available to European consumers. It never was that way, and the consumers there have simply found better cars on offer from other automakers.
You can blame GM’s management completely for being incapable of making better products. 100% at fault.
If they had made better products, they would have sold, and GM wouldn’t have to have sold it’s European operations.
It’s the same thing that happened when Chevrolet was pulled from Europe. You remember that one? I know you do, because you were going on about how great Chevrolet will be in Europe (in some kind of American-jingoist fever), and not less than 48 hours later, you were proven dead wrong.
The Europeans have more discriminating demands of their cars, and want the best for their money, so it would be incumbent upon GM’s management to not cut concerns and only offer the best product.
Low-end, value-priced crap they sell in the US won’t cut it there, and that is why Chevrolet failed; because GM’s management was unwilling to spend more money to make a much better product. They didn’t learn from their mistake, and through decades of their mismanagement of Opel/Vaux, all they can do is sell it to PSA.
Nothing like putting their tails between their legs and running away like cowards. Worst of all, you actually think Chevrolet is going to come back and somehow savage the European market into submission.
If only Chevrolet in Europe wasn’t known for rebadged Daewoos, plastic interiors, and being sold alongside farm equipment.
If the people in Europe had a choice between a opel, vauxhall, and chevy name plates that was based on the same car which one would they choose? Not chevy no matter how good those cars were! So GM took chevy out of the European market knowing one day they would come back. You do remember that GM sponsors a European football team (chevy) even when they don’t sell any Chevy’s in Europe!
So now GM can get rid of opel/vauxhall off their books and send Chevy’s to Europe and the best part is that even if they have less then 1% of the market share at least they will break even or maybe make a profit. Which is more than opel/vauxhall ever did in the passed decade.
I say the people of Europe get what they deserve, they refused to support GM so GM stop supporting them.
To your point about Chevy’s not being a good enough car, please their cars are every bit as good as ford’s if not better. Ford sells cars in Europe that have just as many problems as you mentioned chevy has in Europe. So it’s not a car thing it’s a pride thing.
I see we don’t see eye to eye on this, I have stated my point, there is no reason to discuss anymore unless you can add something more.