GM Takes on Opel Workers' Union

US carmaker General Motors is planning to cut its Opel workforce in Bochum by 100 jobs, the Welt am Sonntag reported over the weekend. The employees will be allowed to continue working in a joint venture with an external partner, the paper said. The chief of Opel's workers' union, Klaus Franz, said that the plan was contrary to the contract agreed on in March, but GM disagreed. General Motors' Europe speaker, Rüdiger Assion, said that outsourcing plans had been part of the contract from the beginning, and that it was planned all along to move the 100 Bochum jobs to an external contractor. The Opel workers' union nonetheless applied for a provisional order at a court in Bochum, which resulted in the planned outsourcing being postponed until November 30th. Until then, the Opel workers' union will negotiate with Opel's management.