General Motors: the EMF and the European work’s council are threatening to block negotiations in the entire group as long as the Anvers factory question has not been settled

The future of General Motors' Anvers factory is not yet assured but unions and the car manufacturer's European management are working on it. The plan would be to build 80,000 Chevrolets in 2010, when the Opel Astra will no longer be produced. Belgian unions are on strike because they think that this production level is insufficient to guarantee employment. Supporting this mobilization, the European Metalworkers Federation (EFM) and the group's EWC declared that, everywhere else, no negotiation at the local level will begin as long as employment's future in the Anvers factory is not guaranteed. (Ref. 070382)
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80,000 Chevrolets starting in 2010. After the two negotiation days in Rüsselsheim, Germany, both parties came to what can be perceived as the beginning of an agreement. 80,000 Chevrolets could be produced in Anvers as soon as 2010, date to which the current Opel Astra model will be stopped. For unions this is a first step, but it is not enough. They want to obtain the production of another model. They let the European management know their claim. On May 4, GM Europe’s manager will meet, in Brus

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