General Motors Europe announced yesterday that it will cut 12,000 jobs on the continent by the end of 2006 in a plan aimed at saving US$617 million per year.
The company said that 90 percent of the cuts would be made in 2005 and that the plan "provides for the majority of the cuts to be in Germany, with a heavy emphasis on managing and engineering."
However, it said negotiations with employee representatives would determine which of its 10 European manufacturing plants are affected.
Negotiations
"The details we must negotiate with our workers councils, beginning today -- and we hope to have an agreement by the end of November," GM Europe spokesman Ruediger Assion said.
GM Europe currently has 62,000 employees.
Separately, German car maker Opel plans to axe 7,000 jobs from a total workforce of 33,000 in Germany, the mass-circulation daily Bild reported yesterday.
However, contrary to the fears recently expressed by unions and politicians, none of Opel's four German production sites would be closed under the restructuring plans, the newspaper said.
Opel's main factory in Ruesselsheim, near Frankfurt, and the site in Bochum in the heavy-industrialized Ruhr region have been seen as the most likely targets for possible closure.
10,000 to 12,000 jobs
Bild said that General Motors plans to slash 10,000-12,000 from a total 60,000 jobs in Europe.
In addition to Opel, GM Europe comprises Vauxhall in Britain and Saab in Sweden.
The woes at Opel were the reason behind German Economy Minister Wolfgang Clement's cancellation of a planned meeting yesterday with his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy at the last minute.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
RSS