Dear colleagues,

Hereby I transmit to all of you the solidarity of our colleagues of IG Metall and I assure you that we will support with all our strength the fight of the Antwerp employees for future products and volume. IG Metall at the German GM sites is involved in preparing and organizing the European Action Day, planned for 3. of May 2007 by the GM employee forum.

To the ears of the employees at Antwerp it must sound like sheer mockery that GME on the one hand declares in mid April there will be no closing of plants and no forced redundanciesin Europe in connection with the new Astra generation and that on the other hand some time later they declare they want to convey to Antwerp a product of about 80.000 vehicles only. From this kind of negotiating by GME we can only conclude that GME want to close the Antwerp plant in the long run.

Such a way of negotiating cannot be called respectable. And it shows GME`s dog-eat-dog mentality.This American corporation shows no concern for the interests of employees.

Your strike in Antwerp as well as the European Action Day on 3. of May 2007 are exactly the right answer to this GM policy which is hostile towards employment. Only in this way our joint demands can be achieved. They mean that GME guarantee an acceptable volume and at least two products for the Antwerp plant. Further it is absolutely necessary that GME accept a European plan for the future until 2016 for all the GME plants including minimum standards for outsourcing measures so that all our colleagues at all the European sites can have employment prospects.

In solidarity

Jürgen Peters
Chairman IG Metall