Production hit as GM workers stage day of action

Thousands of employees at General Motors’ European plants staged protests today against the plan to slash 12,000 jobs across the continent, while a shortage of parts from a striking German plant forced two other factories to stop production.

Several thousand people gathered in the centre of the German city of Bochum with union flags and banners proclaiming, “We are fighting bad management.”

Bochum’s workers fear their ageing Opel plant will be the worst hit and have been on unofficial strike since GM announced its plans last Thursday. They say they will not return to work unless they get assurances that no one will be fired.

The walkout showed its first signs of squeezing GM’s production in Europe.

Opel spokesman Ulrich Weber said production at the company’s main plant in Ruesselsheim, Germany, was halted today morning for lack of parts usually supplied from Bochum.

Production at a plant in Antwerp, Belgium, was also expected to grind to a halt today.

“The roof is burning at Opel, and General Motors is trying to put out the fire with gasoline,” union official Udo Loewenbrueck told demonstrators in Ruesselsheim.

Unions called the “day of action” after GM announced that it expects to get rid of 12,000 jobs in Europe by the end of 2006 – most in German.