Germany worries about auto jobs as GM seeks to sell Opel

LONDON (ICIS)–Germany’s government will do everything “politically possible” to preserve jobs at General Motors’ (GM) European Opel affiliate amid talks of Opel’s sale to France’s PSA Peugeot Citroen, chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday.

German labour union officials, who are represented on Opel’s supervisory board, confirmed the talks on Friday, and GM said this week that it was considering a sale of Opel, as well as of the affiliated British Vauxhall brand, to PSA.

Opel employs about 38,000 workers in Europe, including 19,000 in Germany. Last year, the company sold 1.2m vehicles, primarily passenger cars, according to its website.

Merkel had been approached by PSA to arrange a meeting about PSA’s talks with GM, which are in an “advanced stage”, a government official said.

Meanwhile, the government appointed an official from the economic affairs ministry to act as a “coordinator” in the GM-PSA process, and economic affairs minister Brigitte Zypries is talking to Opel’s works council, labour unions and Opel’s management, with the aim of securing jobs in Germany, the official said.

Opel’s CEO, Karl-Thomas Neumann, said that a combination with PSA “makes sense, in principle”.

“We will do everything to ensure that Opel has a sustainable and successful future,” Neumann said in a brief message on social media site Twitter.

Analysts said that selling Opel, which has been part of GM for more than 85 years, was related to the “America First” policies of US President Donald Trump as GM would invest proceeds from the Opel sale in its US operations.

Trump, who has repeatedly threatened a “border tax” on cars and vehicles imported from Mexico and elsewhere, wants US firms to invest, manufacture and hire in the US.

He reiterated those points in a high-level meeting at the White House with GM’s CEO Mary Barra and other US auto executives shortly after taking office on 20 January.

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