Germany: Opel temporarily closes its Bochum and Eisenach factories

Hit by the financial crisis, several car manufacturers, including Opel, Daimler, Ford and BMW, reduced their production in Germany. On Opel's site in Bochum, the flow line was stopped for two weeks, from September 29 to October 10. Opel will also suspend production for three weeks, starting on October 13, on its Eisenach production site in Thuringia (eastern Germany). In total, almost 5.000 Opel employees in Bochum and 1.800 in Eisenach are concerned by these measures. (Ref. 080764)
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According to a spokesman of Adam Opel GmbH, the German brand of the American group General Motors, this decision can be explained by the financial crisis on the European automotive markets, notably three important markets for Opel: Spain, Italy and Great Britain. “Our sales dropped of more than 30% in Spain. We decided to reduce production to avoid building cars which would remain in the warehouses” explained the spokesman.

Production stops but no layoffs. “In our factories, we have different fl

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