Munich At the Hessian car manufacturer Opel, the dispute between management and union threatens to escalate. After the Stellantis subsidiary recently had to take severe criticism because of the planned outsourcing of the factories in Rüsselsheim and Eisenach, a “new low point” has now been reached, write the Opel works councils in an internal leaflet that is available to the Handelsblatt.
The starting point of their outrage: Opel boss Uwe Hochgeschurtz and Labor Director Ralph Wangemann informed the employee representatives on Wednesday about their plan to “not only downsize the tool shop (TDO) in Rüsselsheim, contrary to the previous agreement, but to close it completely,” it says Circular letter to all Opel employees in Germany.
The vehicle manufacturer confirmed that it wanted to close the tool shop in a few weeks. “Existing projects here will expire at the end of the year,” said Opel in a statement. The background is that in the course of the drive shift away from the combustion engine towards electric motors, less and less work is required in this area.
The company tried to do everything possible to keep the workload and personnel requirements in the tool shop in an appropriate balance. “Despite all efforts, however, adequate capacity utilization will no longer be possible in the long term from 2022,” emphasized Opel.
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The workers’ representatives reacted in shock and announced resistance. After all, a partial reconciliation of interests was decided in the department only four months ago. According to this, 100 of the approximately 260 employees in toolmaking should have received an equivalent job elsewhere. The loss of the remaining 160 jobs is “not acceptable”.
Opel works councils are calling for the closure plans to be stopped
The works councils speak of a “breach of contract” on two levels: On the one hand, the partial reconciliation of interests will be terminated by the planned procedure. On the other hand, Opel is violating the future collective agreement, which states that the car manufacturer undertakes to make investments “in all companies that are necessary to maintain their existence and to secure jobs”.
The works councils are calling for the closure plans to be stopped and for an end to “permanent and never-ending restructuring”. The company itself emphasizes, however, to act in accordance with the collective bargaining regulations. The fundamental dispute between management and the works council has been simmering for a long time.
Background to the dispute: At the beginning of 2020, Opel agreed with the employee representatives to build the Astra compact car again at the main plant in Rüsselsheim and to extend the protection against dismissal for employees until mid-2025. In return, the works council and the trade union agreed to cut 2,100 jobs in Germany by the end of 2021 through voluntary measures such as partial retirement, early retirement or severance payments.
The problem: there are simply too few volunteers. The Opel management has therefore continuously increased the pressure in the past few months and established something like a hit list. There are hundreds of employees who work at the headquarters in Rüsselsheim in prototype construction, parts storage, toolmaking, design, purchasing or engineering workshops. Your jobs will disappear in the course of the industry transformation. Therefore, she wants to get rid of Opel as a priority – by almost all means.
More than a year ago, Labor Director Ralph Wangemann even threatened employees in the so-called “focus areas” with redundancies for operational reasons. However, the manager shied away from the implementation. Instead, he set up a transfer company and called out new focus areas.
Neither did much. In a town hall meeting in mid-May, Wangemann complained that sometimes only eight contracts to switch to the transfer company were concluded per week. Far too little from the manager’s point of view.
In the summer, Wangemann wrote letters directly to the employees. “The position you previously occupied in the focus area is no longer applicable,” he stated and asked those affected to leave the company or to apply internally for positions in other areas as quickly as possible. Anyone who fails to do this could be transferred “unilaterally”, threatened Wangemann. With the closure of the tool shop, the manager is now risking maximum escalation with the employee representatives.
More: “Escape from co-determination” – Planned Opel dismemberment causes severe criticism