'DISAPPOINTMENT' say CSC Provincial Secretary Eddy De Decker and Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt

But near the end of the following article there is hope for the fight and future at Antwerp.


GM to invest 3.1 bln in new Astra car in Europe

By Steve McGrath
Last Update: 1:31 PM ET Apr 17, 2007
(Updates an item published at 1429 GMT, adding union comment.)

FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) -- The European division of General Motors Corp. (GMGeneral Motors Corporation GM ) Tuesday said it plans to produce the next generation of its Astra model in the U.K., Germany, Poland and Sweden, casting doubt on the future of its Antwerp plant in Belgium.
In a statement, the company said it will invest a total of EUR3.1 billion in the next generation compact Astra car, its best-selling model in Europe that is sold under the Opel and Vauxhall brands. It is seeking a 30% productivity rise compared to the current model at the plants where it is built.
GM's move is part of a broader effort to turn around its European operations, which - like those of many mass-market automakers in Europe - has been burdened by overcapacity and growing competition from lower-cost Asian rivals, such as Toyota Motor Corp. (TMtoyota motor corp sp adr rep2com

GM said it will stop production of the Astra at its Antwerp plant, though it said it wouldn't close the plant. The new Astra is expected to replace the current model in early 2010.
"No decision has yet been taken on future production (at Antwerp), but we will work on options for assembly operations at fair volumes," together with unions, GM said in a statement.
"Product allocations are extraordinarily difficult decisions to take," Carl-Peter Forster, president of General Motors Europe, said in the statement.
"All of our Western European plants have significantly improved over the past few years and are now very close in terms of the various measures of performance, such as cost, productivity and quality. In the end, it is a strategic decision based on a number of factors such as capacity planning, brand and market considerations, as well as ongoing restructuring activities," he said.
There has been widespread speculation that GM Europe could close one or more of its manufacturing plants in Western Europe as it moves production east and increasingly focuses on bolstering sales in Russia, its main growth market.
It is currently constructing a new manufacturing plant on the outskirts of St. Petersburg, and in March said it would double the planned capacity of the plant to 70,000 vehicles due to soaring demand in Russia. It sold 132,600 vehicles in Russia in 2006, up 73% from 76,578 in 2005.
In its statement, GM said it wants more productivity from all its plants as it looks to boost European compact car output to 750,000, from 535,000 in 2006.
"The automotive business remains very challenging, and GM Europe must continue to focus on increasing productivity and efficiency in order to compete effectively," Forster said. "Even with an increase (in compact car production), adjusting capacity to meet demand remains a challenge for GM as it is for other automakers worldwide," he added.
The news will be welcomed in the U.K., where GM's Ellesmere Port plant had been thought at greatest threat of possible closure after GM last year cut a shift at the plant with the loss of 900 jobs.
"There is no doubt in my mind the most important reason behind (GM's) decision was the productivity, quality and commitment of the workforce," said Tony Woodley, general secretary of the U.K.'s Transport and General Workers Union. He praised the support of U.K. Chancellor Gordon Brown, who he said had provided sizable grant aid.
GM's Antwerp plant currently employs 4,500 people producing three- and five-door versions of the Astra and the Astra minivan. Cutting a single shift at the plant would reduce headcount by 1,400.
In its statement, GM said it would work with unions to identify the extent of the headcount reductions. Job losses will start from this summer as production of the current Astra model starts to be reduced in line with an expected fall in demand as the product cycle comes to an end.
In a separate statement, GM said its decision to allocate the new Astra to the four plants had been taken with the agreement of the European Employee Forum, the umbrella body representing GM's European unions.
"Our main target was to avoid a plant closure, and the serious willingness of the company to look into alternative solutions for the Antwerp plant is what we have requested from the very beginning," Klaus Franz, chairman of the European Employee Forum, said in the second statement.
However, workers at the Antwerp plant took strike action Tuesday in protest at GM's decision. "We are very disappointed," said Eddy De Decker, provincial secretary for the CSC union. "It means 1,400 jobs will go this year, and then we don't know what will happen."
De Decker added it wasn't immediately clear how long the strike would last. "We want information and security," he said.
Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt called the news a disappointment.
He said he had a telephone conversation with GM's European President Carl-Peter Forster and insisted a dialogue be started with the aim of assuring a new future for the Antwerp plant. The prime minister said GM management had promised to open discussions on the future of the plant in a matter of weeks.
As well as Ellesmere Port, which now employs 2,200, the new generation Astra will be produced at Bochum in Germany, which employs 4,900, Trollhattan in Sweden where 2,150 are employed and Gliwice in Poland, which has a staff of 2,800.

Together in Solidarity with the other GM Europe rank-and-file, the Belgian Workers can turn this around!

In this video by Rudi Kennes, he refers to the very narrow content of the GM double-talk and mis-directions presented. Now, pompous GM management shows massive contempt for the general public by repeating these ridiculous and outrageous claims in this news report below.

*** MAKE NO MISTAKE! It is very important to state that WE ARE TALKING ABOUT A PLANT CLOSURE IN ANTWERP ... ONE SHIFT AT A TIME! ***

We all know how the company twists and turns to get what they want. The workers live with GM deciet each and every day. How can we believe them now? Union members have stood up to them for at least the last twelve months. They are not going to stand down now. Say NO to GM propaganda! Solidarity with Antwerp!

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Belgium loses out on GM's Astra successor
Wed Apr 18, 2007 9:08AM BST
By Philip Blenkinsop

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - General Motors will build the next-generation Astra compact car at plants in Britain, Germany, Poland and Sweden, but no longer in Belgium, the world's biggest carmaker said on Tuesday.

The Astra is GM's top model in Europe with nearly half a million sold last year so GM plants across the region were keen to get the assembly work and some 3.1 billion euros of investment.

GM Europe President Carl-Peter Forster made the announcement in Brussels after negotiations with labour representatives in a hotel at Brussels Airport.

The company said the Antwerp plant in Belgium would also lose the equivalent of an entire production shift this year, corresponding to about 1,400 jobs or a third of the workforce, but GM will continue to assemble vehicles there.

Negotiations with GM's labour representatives will decide ultimately how expensive the restructuring will be.

"It is very important to state that we are not talking about a plant closure in Antwerp," Forster told reporters, adding GM would consider producing a different model there, such as a small Chevrolet brand car.

GM makes the current Astra in Antwerp, Bochum in Germany and at Ellesmere Port in north-west England.

"Ultimately, cost per unit, total cost position and productivity were not so dissimilar between those three large western European plants that this itself would drive the decision towards one or the other plant," Forster said.

Instead, strategic considerations led to Ellesmere Port and Bochum retaining production, he explained, since GM Europe's two largest markets remain Britain and Germany, which respectively are also home to the Vauxhall and Opel brands.

"In terms of natural hedging it's important to produce in the UK because we have a large exposure to the British pound," Forster added in a conference call with reporters.

GM Europe's Gliwice plant in Poland and the Trollhattan factory in Sweden also won work on the new Astra, due in 2010.

By then the company hopes to have improved productivity by 30 percent. Its output of compact cars in Europe will rise to 750,000, some 40 percent above the number it made last year.

"We are under considerable pressure particularly from Far Eastern manufacturers. They do not only enjoy lower labour ... costs but also massively undervalued currencies," Forster said, pointing for example to the yen being undervalued to the euro.

"We can only counteract with further productivity improvement. It's always difficult to anticipate how (this) will or will not have to be turned into headcount reduction, it very much depends on the volume," he warned.

Should the total western European car market grow then productivity improvements do not necessarily have to lead to headcount reductions, Forster said.

GM Europe, which last year made its first annual profit since 1999 thanks to sweeping cost cuts and rising unit sales, employed 60,500 workers at the end of 2006.

GM's European workforce has already offered to cut costs by about 290 million euros to improve competitiveness in the hope of preventing the closure of a another European plant, labour representatives said this month.

GM's decision is another blow for the auto industry in Belgium. Last year Volkswagen announced it would slash the workforce of its Brussels plant to 1,500 from over 5,000.

Europe's largest carmaker eventually offered the plant the prospect of building the new Audi A1, securing 2,200 jobs, but only after workers had accepted longer hours for the same pay.

Strikes and a march through the capital then echoed protests in 1997 when French car maker Renault decided to close a plant near Brussels, axing some 3,100 workers.

"This is not a good day for Antwerp," said union representative Luc van Grinsven. "I think the Antwerp team will be very disappointed, but at least we ensured no plant closure and no forced redundancies."

Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt said he understood the sorrow and bitterness of the workers and sought discussions to secure the future of the Antwerp plant.


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