Klaus Franz: Fiat Empire Built with US and German Money

The workers of Germany's Opel now face a choice, one they themselves have no way of making. The options presented to them by those who speak, supposedly, for their interests, are only two: Fiat and Magna. We already talked about the fears a Fiat deal has spawned within Opel unions.

According to Klaus Franz, Opel labor leader, the workers have every reason to be scared. He expects Opel will lose some 9,000 to 10,000 workers at the hands of Fiat.

Franz himself is a Magna supporter, but he is also looking into investors other than Fiat, but he did not mention any names. Even if he leans towards the Austrin-Canadian company, Franz did not back out from talks with Fiat either.

"Whoever believes in the concept that only huge companies formed through mega-mergers will survive will favor Fiat, but whoever believes in innovation, flexibility and economies of scale through partnerships will favor Magna." said the union leader.

Franz says that despite the official statements made by Marchionne, the Kaiserslautern engine plant will be shut down after all, along side Fiat/Opel manufacturing plants in Italy and the UK, Reuters reported.

"The financing concept for me is absolutely not convincing. In my opinion he is risking everything. He wants to build a global carmaker financed with German and American taxpayer money," Franz accused.

In Franz's opinion, "the deal with General Motors only makes sense for Marchionne if he can get its Latin American business as well, which he wants GM to bring into the new company." The mega-merger Fiat aims at, based on the "bigger is better" philosophy might rather fail than succeed, Franz stated.