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AUTOMOBILE

Opel workers ponder fate

AFP, Berlin
The future of Opel autos and its 50,000 workers across Europe hung in the balance on Thursday as General Motors hung fire on the fate of its subsidiary.
The decision will have major implications for Opel plants throughout Europe and is politically sensitive, particularly in Germany where general elections are scheduled for September 27.
It appeared that, following months of delay, GM had finally taken a decision after a two-day board meeting in Detroit but the firm played down earlier reports that a press conference was planned in Berlin to announce the result.
"If there is something to announce, we will announce it at the appropriate time," a GM statement said.
Senior GM executives were due in Berlin for talks with German officials laterThursday.
Germany is home to 25,000 Opel workers, about half of GM's total European workforce which includes about 5,000 others at British sister brand Vauxhall.
In addition to feared job losses, the GM decision will likely spark major
restructuring of the automobile sector, which has been battered by the global economic slowdown, in Germany and around the world.
The closure of German plants would be a major blow to Chancellor Angela Merkel, who backed a sale to Canadian auto parts group Magna in partnership with Russian bank Sberbank over a rival bid by RHJ investment group.
The head of Opel's works council, Franz Klaus told ZDF public television that a GM "viability plan" called for plants in Antwerp in Belgium and Eisenach and Bochum in Germany to be shut if Opel remained a part of the US group.
Franz said he feared "a cost cutting orgy" if GM held on to its unit, with German workers most likely to suffer.
In a non-binding deal made in May, Magna and GM agreed to a sale of Opel, smoothed by a 1.5-billion-euro (2.2-billion-dollar) loan from Berlin, but have been unable to finalise the deal.
German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck stressed Wednesday that GM would have to repay this loan.
"The 1.5-billion bridging credit is a loan. And a loan is a loan. GM must pay
back the 1.5 billion under the conditions that we agreed on for Opel," he said in Berlin.
The US group is reportedly wary of selling Opel to Magna and Sberbank because it could create a strong competitor for GM's other brands in Russia, poised to overtake Germany as Europe's biggest car market.
As GM vacillated, German politicians with at least one eye on the election ramped up the pressure on GM. with Merkel saying early this month: "The sooner a decision is made, the better.
Opel is losing between five and six million euros per day, according to media reports, but German managers and labour representatives insist it could turn a profit if it emerged from under the US parent's supervision.
However, GM Europe boss Carl-Peter Forster fuelled speculation that GM would hold on to Opel in an interview with a German car magazine on Wednesday.
Forster said that (he new GM board in Detroit felt "Opel is still a very important brand for GM and that Europe is a still important market," according to Auto Motor and Sport.