car industry
IG Metall threatens Opel parent Stellantis with conflict
IG Metall fears a deforestation at Opel. Photo: Michael Reichel / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
At the car manufacturer Opel, the tone is getting harder. With political backing, IG Metall declares war on the newly founded parent company Stellantis.
IG Metall has warned the European auto company Stellantis of a deforestation at its German subsidiary Opel.
“The Stellantis Group should be aware that a massive conflict threatens if outsourcing plans and product relocations are implemented,” said the district chief of IG Metall Mitte, Jörg Köhlinger, on Friday. The support of the Prime Ministers of Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Thuringia is “an expression of a broad alliance against deforestation”.
Last week, Stellantis announced plans to separate the two production plants in Rüsselsheim and Eisenach from the German unit Opel Automobile GmbH. In addition, due to the lack of semiconductors, the Eisenach plant is to be closed for three months, while production will continue in other Stellantis plants. For this purpose, short-time work should be applied for. On Wednesday, further indications of an imminent reorganization of Opel GmbH became known, in which, for example, development capacities could be relocated to Morocco for cost reasons.
Stellantis is trying to enforce product decisions and location assignments through the back door in a completely non-transparent manner in order to bypass tariff and co-determination structures, explained Köhlinger. Obviously, additional capacities should be built up for the start-up of the new edition of the Grandland model outside of Eisenach in order to be able to put the respective workforce under pressure. The car had to be built exclusively in Eisenach, added the trade union representative Rudolf Luz. There is no need for additional production and development capacities.
The former General Motors subsidiary Opel was taken over by Peugeot parent PSA in 2017. At the beginning of the year, this in turn merged with Fiat-Chrysler to form the Stellantis Group based in Amsterdam. The company is the fourth largest automaker in the world and is led by former PSA boss Carlos Tavares. In the tough restructuring course for the only German brand Opel, IG Metall agreed protection against dismissal until July 2025 for the remaining employees. IG Metall has announced protests for October 29th.