GM's Opel Job Cut Plan Revealed, Germany the Most Affected

General Motors has already announced that it intends to cut approximately a fifth of its 50,000 European workforce but, until now, nobody knew exactly how many jobs will go at every location Opel is controlling across the continent. After a meeting with Open unions, GM Europe interim boss Nick Reilly revealed that around 50 to 60 percent of the proposed job cut will come from Germany, the country that criticized the US-based manufacturer with every single occasion for canceling the sale to Magna.

Opel's top labor leader Klaus Franz revealed some details concerning GM's job cutting plan which, at the first glimpse, is indeed affecting Germany the most.

According to a report issued by Autonews, GM will cut around 2,500 jobs at Opel's HQ in Ruesselsheim, Germany. This includes 1,300 jobs in administration, 862 in production plus 548 in engineering and development center. The Bochum factory will be affected as well, with 1,799 jobs to be eliminated. Additionally, the Eisenach and Kaiserslautern plants in Germany will lose 300 jobs each.

The Antwerp, Belgium production facility is still at risk, with GM analyzing its options when it comes to this particular plant. The factory employs 2,321 workers and General Motors tries to decide whether to shut down operations entirely or to begin production of a small SUV and remove only 750 jobs.

In Spain, GM is looking at ways to lay off 900 workers from the Zaragoza plant while in the UK, the Luton plant that builds Renault Trafic and Opel Vivaro vans might lose 354 jobs.

The luckiest Opel/Vauxhall plants are those in Ellesmere Port, England, Gliwice, Poland, Szentgotthard, Hungary, and Aspern, Austria as no jobs are at risk for the time being.