“The ink had barely dried after GM signed Opel over to Canadian car parts maker Magna and Russia’s Sberbank when they announced they would fire one-fifth of the group’s 50,000 European employees within a year – 4,000 in Germany.”
“Even a strong recovery would leave automakers with huge overcapacity. Against this background – which the sale of Opel does nothing to change – not admitting the necessity of job cuts is either delusional or dishonest to voters.”
“So when Germany’s government put up €4.5bn in loans and guarantees to ensure that Magna prevailed in GM’s garage sale, it presumably expected to get something in return.”
And that was…
“Magna co-chief executive Siegfried Wolf’s assurance that restructuring will be guided purely by commercial considerations is laughable when the group is accepting financing that depends on political decisions. The German money is a move in a negative-sum game of trying to push job cuts across the border.”
“We are naturally determined to resolve the remaining problems in a spirit of European equality.”
