GM Europe: increasingly uncertain future for the Bochum site in Germany after the new Astra was given to Ellesmere Port (UK) and Gliwice (Poland) in return for concessions on labor organization

Is GM going to shut Bochum down after 2014?  Since Opel’s management confirmed, on May 17 – Ascension Day – that it intended to produce its flagship car, the new Astra, only in Ellesmere Port, UK, and Gliwice, Poland, when it used to be mainly produced in Rüsselsheim, western Germany, speculation over Bochum’s future has resumed.  Indeed, in return from the relocation of the Astra, production of the Zafira minivan could be transferred from Bochum, in the Ruhr region, to Rüsselheim, in Hessen, which would mean Bochum’s end.  At a staff meeting on May 21 in Bochum, Stracke denied such a scenario.  “I never offered that Rüsselheim produced the Zafira” he said, adding that the agreements maintaining the German sites until the end of 2014 would be respected.  However, he made no promises as to what was coming afterwards.  “No decision has been made about Opel after 2014” he said.  He added that, on June 28, Opel’s management would present the board with its plan restructuring European activities, which will also affect Bochum.  “We want to renew with profit quickly” clearly warned the leader of the carmaker, heavily in debt.