GM Europe staff to protest over Portuguese plant

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - General Motors (NYSE:GM - News) staff will go on strike at a Portuguese assembly plant on Tuesday and protest elsewhere after talks on Monday to save the Azambuja factory foundered, the carmaker's European works council said. "The first step is a strike in Azambuja tomorrow and others will follow. This is not about a European 'action day', this is about a long-lasting conflict with different types of action all over Europe," GM Europe employee forum head Klaus Franz said. His statement followed a meeting at which Franz said GM management rebuffed labor's plan to shift some production of Chevrolet cars to Azambuja, which now makes Combo delivery vans. "Instead of working together in good faith to find common solutions for the workers and the company, GM management is going to install overcapacity in eastern Europe and Asia and simultaneously close plants in Europe, first of all in western Europe," the statement said. GM has said the plant, which employs around 1,100 people, has to chop manufacturing costs that are 500 euros ($630) per vehicle more expensive than other potential production centres. Workers have questioned where GM got this number from and Franz said Monday's presentation by management "was absolutely not sufficient and not detailed." Luis Figueiredo, a labor leader at the Azambuja plant, said GM had asked for time to review workers' proposals for cutting logistics costs and that there was no talk at the meeting of closing the plant. Another meeting was set for Wednesday. "Tomorrow's strike of two hours per shift is confirmed," he added. A GM Europe spokesman gave no details of the meeting. "We continue to have an open dialogue with our union partners and remain equally committed to driving the business for improved competitiveness overall here in western Europe," he said. GM Europe is in the process of cutting its staff by nearly a fifth to halt chronic losses. It also said last month it would eliminate 900 jobs at a British car plant to boost productivity. The employee forum statement said GM, which will break ground next week on a new plant in Russia, also planned to buy a plant in Poland where it will make so-called Gamma-platform Chevrolet and Opel cars in future. Published reports have said GM is interested in Polish carmaker FSO, but a source familiar with the situation said the idea was to form a joint venture to make Chevrolet cars in Poland rather than to buy FSO outright. Last year Ukrainian carmaker AvtoZAZ bought a controlling stake in FSO from the Polish government, gaining a foothold in the European Union's largest new member. "Source":[ http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/060612/autos_gm_europe.html?.v=2]

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