On wednesday the European negotiations regarding Antwerp, Trollhättan, Gliwice, Bochum and Ellesmere Port plant will be held in Rüsselsheim, Germany. But one thing is important not to be confused. The planned loss of an equivalent of a shift in Antwerp has nothing to do with a worse outlook for the future of the plant. Even if Antwerp had get the next Astra the plant would have lost the equivalent of a shift because of the lower basic engineering content for the next product generation. Ellesmere Port lost a shift last year because of 2 reasons: 1. the decrease of Astra demand because of the natural life cycle of the product and 2. the lower basic engineering content for the next Astra. GM needs only 2 personnel of 2 shifts to produce in 3 shifts in the future. That means even when Antwerp looses an equivalent of a shift it has a chance to operate in 3 shifts in the future. Ellesmere Port must now not decrease jobs according to GM. But Bochum will face also the demand for job cuts even the plant will get the next Astra. The issue is complex and sometimes hard to understand. But the future of the Antwerp plant as an assembly plant beyond 2010 will lead to another important issue: The plan for buying the Craiova plant in Romania. The avoidance of the closure of Antwerp (or another Delta plant) means that it makes no sense anymore (in truth it never made sense but tell this GM Management ) for GM to buy this Craiova plant. At least GM must now not pay bribes to the Romanian politicians to get the plant.Good luck to Ford you can take it!! We as GM workers don't need it. Another important thing is that GM decided some times ago on the global level that Opel will be only a regional brand in the future but Chevy will be a global brand for GM which means that the efforts to strengthen the Chevy brand will much more thant the efforts of GM to strengthen the Opel brand. So maybe things work out for antwerp in the long run. Let's try it!