UAW President urges Bochum workers to reconsider rejected Opel deal
Bob King calls for a new vote after Bochum’s workforce rejected a restructuring agreement that would keep the plant open until 2016 but cut jobs and freeze wages.
United Auto Workers president Bob King has publicly urged workers at General Motors’ Opel plant in Bochum, Germany, to hold a second vote on a restructuring agreement they rejected by a three-to-one margin in late March 2013. The proposal, already ratified by workers at other German Opel sites, would have kept the Bochum plant open until 2016 but imposed a wage freeze and other concessions.
King’s intervention follows the plant’s overwhelming rejection of a national Master Agreement negotiated by IG Metall, Germany’s largest industrial union. While the deal passed at other Opel sites, Bochum workers resisted the proposed wage freeze and job cuts, which would see 1,800 of the plant’s 3,000 roles eliminated and assembly operations cease after 2016. Only logistics and components work would remain, with further job losses expected.
Pressure for a second vote
After the rejection, GM-Opel announced plans to close the entire Bochum complex by the end of 2014, accelerating the timeline and threatening the remaining 3,000 jobs. According to Automotive News, King encouraged IG Metall to push for another ballot, referencing similar situations in the US where repeated votes were used to secure concessions. “I would really hate to see that plant closed when so much effort was put in by IG Metall and the works council to save it,” King said, suggesting a new vote could “open up a door of opportunity for people to talk.”
King cited the 2011 Spring Hill, Tennessee, deal as a model, where the UAW agreed to lower wages and “innovative staffing arrangements” to keep a GM plant open. That agreement allowed for a workforce of mostly lower-paid, so-called tier-two workers, and permitted on-site suppliers to use non-GM staff at even lower pay rates. The deal gave existing, higher-paid US workers the choice of a 50 percent wage cut, a transfer to another GM plant, or leaving the company.
Impact on jobs and the region
The closure of the Bochum plant would be the first shutdown of its kind in Germany since the Second World War. The facility once employed 20,000 people, and the loss of its remaining 3,000 jobs is expected to affect up to 40,000 jobs in North Rhine-Westphalia when including suppliers and related businesses.
IG Metall and the joint works council have supported the restructuring agreement, arguing it would keep some production in Bochum and secure jobs, but the local workforce rejected their assurances. After the “no” vote, union officials described the decision as “incomprehensible” and warned workers they would have to face the consequences. The union has also been accused of isolating Bochum workers from broader support within Germany and Europe.
Wider context: Overcapacity and shifting production
The Bochum dispute is part of a broader trend as global carmakers seek to reduce European overcapacity. GM, Ford and others have reported heavy losses in the region, in contrast to strong profits in North America where cost-cutting measures have already been implemented. Opel management has shifted production to lower-cost countries such as Poland, where wages are a fraction of those in Germany.
The fate of Bochum’s workforce remains uncertain. Unless a new vote reverses the rejection, GM-Opel’s current plan is to close the plant by the end of 2014, leaving thousands of workers and their families facing redundancy.
