General Motors is to axe almost 1,900 jobs at its Opel factory in Antwerp, Belgium, the manufacturer said on Thursday.
The company previously had said that it would shed 1,400 jobs as part of a shake-up of production for the next generation of the group's Opel Astra model from 2010.
GM also said in a statement on Thursday it was to axe another 400 temporary jobs, which would not be renewed.
The jobs will be shed by mid-2008, while the temporary jobs will go by July this year, it said.
The news resulted in strikes at General Motors plants in several European countries in support of their Antwerp colleagues.
In a statement from GM's German subsidiary Opel in Frankfurt on April 17, GM Europe said that it would stop producing the Astra model in Antwerp after 2010.
The new generation of Astra models would be built at four European sites — Bochum in Germany, Ellesmere Port in Britain, Trollhattan in Sweden and Gliwice in Poland.
