Automatic translation:                  
16/05/2007

Late shift in Antwerp plant has been on strike since 18.30

Since 18.30 the late shift in the Antwerp plant in Belgium is on strike. The reason for the strike has been that GM Management by accident paid for a strike day during the last weeks as the plant were on strike. Now the local management wanted to get the money back from the workers. But everybody can imagine that the situation in the plant is very sensitive after the decision by European GM Management not to allocate the next Global Astra in Antwerp.

Unions tried to convince Management to find an alternative solution for example to ask workers on a voluntary basis to work on Saturday because there is a demand for Astras. But the local management came back telling the unions that the IT-system were fixed to reduce the next wages by the amount of money GM paid too much.After that the workers reacted sponanously. Is there no local GM manager in Antwerp who is able to deal with people in a situation like this?

Are the Antwerp workers still on strike? I'm struggling to find any further news.
Sorry , but in my prefious post is a little mistake !!! Its not about the last strike day 10/11 may , but about the infosessionsdays on 25/26 april .
It is NOT so that this day is payed accidently , this day was promised to pay out because normaly the first day of restart after the strike was a friday .Because of expected problems in case of a start on friday ( everything has to be restarted and prepared for a normal star-up ) they agreed to start on monday after a groep of people prepared the plant for a normal start-up . at that time the management in Antwerp promised to pay that friday to all the workers !!! Now , les than a week , they come back on this promise and want to colect that day back . THIS IS NOT ACCEPTEBLE ANYMORE !!! Since more than a month the local management is constantly provocating the workers .First they promise something , a few days later they redraw there promises .This management in Antwerp ( who is recently changed !!!!) is not capeble to make the right decisions or is targeted provocating !!!! Was it the intention from the GM top to create a management in Antwerp who is not arranged to deal with this situations , and so provocate constantly ????
Het wordt hoog tijd dat ze de directie hier in Antwerpen hun C4 geven. Hun geloofwaardigheid zijn ze nu kwijt, na al hun loze beloftes. Het is een spijtige zaak voor al de werkwilligen, maar nu is het tijd om door deze zure appel door te bijten en door te gaan met staken. Totdat er zekerheid op papier staat en er een toekomst voor diegene is die blijven.
Solidarity with Antwerp!

From these posts here and from news items online I have been trying to learn about the latest attack on the Opel Antwerp workers by GM Europe.

Here's what I think is going on:

1. Some weeks ago, GM Europe stopped the Opel Antwerp operation production for more than one shift and presented an information session to the Opel Antwerp workers. Subsequently, the Opel Antwerp workers walked out and were on strike for many days.

2. The Opel Antwerp workers returned to work this past weekend after they voted not to continue their strike. Production started up without incident and operations were running normally until Wednesday evening this week. At that time the workers became aware that GM Europe had decided not to pay the workers for the time spent during the earlier information sessions.

3. Specifically, GM Europe decided that the workers had been overpaid. GM Europe concluded that the workers had been paid for the time spent during the GM information session. GM Europe concluded that the workers had not made production during those down shifts, and concluded further that the Opel Antwerp workers were not entitled to be paid for those hours they had spent at the plant not working.

4. The Opel Antwerp workers walked out Wednesday evening and have not returned. There was no production on any shift Thursday. There is a scheduled shutdown on Friday. Production at Opel Antwerp will be shut down until next week.

What's the real story?

I am unable to find any clear news stories about GM Europe's attack on Opel Antwerp workers. Please send the actual news about the latest attack on the Opel Antwerp workers by GM Europe.
The overtime on Satur/Sundays should be stopped. Since years the output of production cells in body shop which are to deliver parts to other plants cannot reach their required output.
Unions should stop this overtime. That hurts. Stop flexibility of the workers towards GM.

Write a comment

See the anti spam word to type (This is to avoid automated comments used to spam)



Welcome

Location

Plants on the map

Topic

Brand

Union

 
Welcome/Languages/English/