Spanish Opel employees in deal with Magna - talks continue (Roundup)

Oct 27, 2009, 14:28 GMT

Zaragoza, Spain - Spanish employees of the struggling car maker Opel on Tuesday ratified an industrial plan agreed with the Canadian auto parts group Magna, which foresees cutting 900 jobs at the Opel factory near Zaragoza, trade union representatives said.

A committee representing the plant's employees called off four one-day work stoppages announced earlier as a protest against job cuts.

Unions and Magna last week agreed on an industrial plan which will only slash 900 jobs, instead of the initially planned 1,300 lay-offs, at the car factory in Figueruelas, which employs 7,500 people.

Employees' representatives also agreed to launch negotiations on the conditions of the lay-offs and of a plan to save 25.8 million euros (39 million dollars) annually at the factory.

The Figueruelas plant is to retain its two production lines, producing 478,000 vehicles annually.

The most difficult part of the negotiations was starting now, employees' representative Jose Juan Arceiz said, explaining that Spanish Opel employees would not accept worse conditions than those given to their colleagues elsewhere in Europe.

Magna hopes to take a majority stake in the car maker, which is expected to cut 10,500 jobs in Europe. However, the deal is pending a decision by General Motors as to whether it will actually sell Opel.