more bad news from GM to Europe :cry:

General Motors, the world's largest car maker, is to cut 12,000 European jobs, trimming $500m (£280m) from annual costs, the Financial Times reports.
Germany will be the hardest hit, the paper said, with 6,000 workers facing redundancy at its Adam Opel business.

The firm's European losses have reached almost $2bn over the past four years, although GM is not the only car maker struggling in the current climate.

GM releases profit data on Thursday and said it will make a major announcement.

A spokesman for the company explained that a figure for job cuts had been decided upon but declined to give more details.

He said that negotiations with unions will start after the plan has been laid out later this week and will aim to be concluded by the end of November.

Hard place to do business

Demand for new cars has been slow to recover following a slowdown in global growth, and higher gasoline costs have further dented demand.

Competition has also increased, prompting producers to offer cheaper cars or financing deals that are proving costly and increasingly eat into diminishing profits.

Earlier this year, GM centralised its European operations by merging its three European car-making businesses - Opel, Vauxhall and Saab - under a single regional chairman, based in Zurich.

That move, and earlier attempts to cut costs, have not done enough and the Financial Times reported that GM complained last month that Europe was becoming a more expensive place to do business.

The firm employs about 63,000 people in 11 factories across the UK, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, and Sweden.


A decision relating to the future of its plants in Russelsheim, near Frankfurt, and Trollhattan in Sweden will probably be taken next year, the paper reported.


GM is not the only car maker facing an increasingly competitive European market.

Ford recently announced it was shutting down production at a UK plant and Volkswagen has warned of job cuts at its German factories unless staff accept a two-year pay freeze.

DaimlerChrysler managed to reach agreement with unions earlier this year, but only after a number of strikes and protests.

More jobs to mexico?? :roll:

Already laid off 200 thousand plus in the US total.

thats a good way to make them popular.

They're really gaining negative popularity then...

that sucks. i feel bad for those people who lost their jobs :(

as if the economy wasnt crappy enough....

As if I needed another reason to dislike GM. :roll:
But like the article says, GM is not the only car company laying people off and closing down factories. Those poor VW people in Germany. A two year pay freeze or no job at all? Hmm... now that is one sh*tty position to be in.

Looks like they aren't doing to well :?

the employees on the Opel factory went on strike and it looks like the workers on Saab are gone join them :D i hope that GM lose alott off money right now beacuse off this :D


FRANKFURT, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Staff outraged by General Motors' plans to slash up to 12,000 jobs in Europe have stopped work at a plant in Bochum, Germany, its works council said on Friday.
A separate labour source who did not want to be identified confirmed that work at the Adam Opel factory had stopped for nearly 15 hours.
Workers on the early shift followed the lead of the Thursday overnight shift, the council said.
GM and Opel officials were not immediately available.
German television showed pictures of a truck driver who was unable to deliver a shipment of shock absorbers at Bochum because workers had blocked the entrance.
The world's biggest carmaker said on Thursday it intended to cut its European workforce by nearly a fifth over the next two years in a drive to save some 500 million euros ($618.9 million) a year and address chronic losses in the region.
Union sources said 4,000 jobs were earmarked to go at Bochum, which made 218,300 Zafira vans and 67,500 Astra compacts in 2003.

as if the economy wasnt crappy enough....
Oh and Mexicos is so much better. The Australia Iota isn't doing great anyway

What this would do is bring Mexico into the modern world, so more average mexicans will be able to own cars, which means they'll need a supply of fuel, which would mean: higher demdand.. higher prices. :roll: I guess you can blame GM for this..

it simple in Mexico the workers need less money than in Europe.
example: turkey which belong in Asia has The toyota(i think) factory! they work there for very small amound of money.

Maybe GM should start producing better cars instead of firing employees... :roll:

Just when I was getting over Oldsmobile. :roll: GM has a lot to compensate for before they win me back. Not that I was ever a huge GM fan to begin with but I did like a lot the cars they no longer offer.