WARSAW (AFP)--Troubled German automaker Opel is to cut 250 jobs
at a plant in Poland, its parent, U.S. giant General Motors Corp.
(GM), said Monday.
"Cutting 250 jobs was made necessary after we moved to a
two-shift production system," GM Poland spokesman Wojciech Osos was
quoted as saying by Poland's PAP news agency.
Opel's plant at Gliwice in southern Poland had previously run
around the clock, with employees working one of three eight-hour
shifts. The cuts are due to come into force at the end of May.
At the end of last year, Opel had already cut 250 jobs at its
Gliwice plant, reducing its employee count to 2,850.
A total of 13,327 vehicles rolled off the production line in
Gliwice in January and February, compared with 37,285 in the same
period last year, according to figures from GM Poland.
The plant makes Opel's Astra and Zafira models.
Citing falling demand in Western Europe, where the plant exports
90% of its cars, the group had already cut back production in
October. It introduced week-long stoppages during which employees
were assigned to maintenance work or took training courses.
The German magazine Der Spiegel had Saturday reported Opel's
management planned to shut three facilities in Europe - two in
Germany and one in Belgium - and sack 11,000 people, one fifth of
its workforce.
The aim is to save some $1.2 billion in staff costs, Der Spiegel
said. An alternative proposal would be to cut only 3,500 jobs but
lower wages across the board, it said.