The signing of a final deal by US auto giant General Motors to cede control of its loss-making European unit Opel looked set to be delayed on Thursday by disputes with unions over job cuts.
A final contract was expected to be signed at a lawyers’ office in Frankfurt mid-afternoon German time but sources and unions said that there were still several issues to be resolved.
“It could be tomorrow (Friday) or Saturday,” an industry source told AFP.
“All we know is that there will probably be no signature today. There is a new meeting tomorrow but there are so many differing reports that nobody really knows,” said Rainer Einenkel, head of Opel’s works council at its factory in Bochum.
GM chief executive Fritz Henderson said in South Korea earlier on Thursday only that the deal “might” be inked this week.
The deal foresees GM, which emerged from bankruptcy earlier this year and is now majority owned by the US government, selling 55 percent in Opel to Canadian parts maker Magna International and Russian state-owned lender Sberbank.
Under a preliminary agreement announced on September 10, employees will own 10 percent in a “New Opel” and GM will retain 35 percent.
As Opel struggles in a depressed European market with too many cars being made for too few customers, Magna is expected to cut around 10,500 jobs in an effort to compete against giants like Toyota, Ford and Volkswagen.
The deal was championed by Germany, home to around half of Opel’s 50,000 employees, with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government offering 4.5 billion euros (6.7 billion dollars) in state aid.
Merkel, elected for a second term on September 27, wants other European countries where Opel has factories, such as Britain, Spain, Belgium and Poland to provide taxpayers’ money too.
But instead, the deal has run into criticism there, with these countries unwilling to stump up cash for a deal that they see as guaranteeing only German jobs and keeping only German plants up and running.
EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes is scrutinising the transaction to determine if Germany’s state aid is contingent on German plants not being closed, which would make it illegal under EU law.
The Canadian firm has been conducting a charm offensive in recent weeks in an attempt to get trade unions in Britain, where Opel operating as the Vauxhall brand employs 5,000 people, and in Spain, home to 7,000 employees, on its side.
On Tuesday, Magna won support from Unite, Britain’s biggest union, and the British government, by promising to keep Vauxhall’s two factories open until at least 2013.
In Spain, however, where Magna is thought to want to slash 1,300 jobs, talks with unions broke down without agreement on Tuesday.
Talks in Spain were still ongoing on Thursday afternoon, a source in the regional government of Aragon told AFP.
In Belgium, where Opel’s Antwerp plant is seen as a prime target for closure, thousands of workers, including hundreds from Germany, held a mass protest last month. The plant employs around 2,500 workers.
European governments have been reticent about providing state aid, with British business minister Peter Mandelson telling the BBC on Tuesday that there was “some way to go” before the government agrees to offer financing.
“We don’t sign a blank cheque,” Mandelson said.
Germany, however, has said it is confident of a deal.
“We are still waiting for the various responses,” Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said on Wednesday. “I gather … that the atmosphere has improved greatly in Britain.”
