Opel: Steve Girsky Takes Off The Gloves. I’d Keep Them On, The Climate Will Be Icy

Go get them, tiger! So far, Steve Girsky, dispatched on a mission impossible to Deutschland to clean up Opel, has been dancing like a butterfly, no stinging involved. Other than targeted leaks, and an announcement to stop making cars in Opel's Bochum plant after 2016, which really did not surprise anyone, there were no big dispatches about the heroics of Steve the hatchet man, who was sent to the Old Country to stick it to the socialist metalworker Nazis. Today, and most likely after increasingly impatient prodding from Detroit, Steve took his gloves off, and a swing at some 20,000 unionized workers in Germany. With Uncle Sam having announced its impending exit from GM, and along with it an end to stingy executive salaries and a life without private jets, the rulers at RenCen have their sights set on cashing in. For that, the stock must go up, and the stock is being dragged down by Opel. Steve was sent to fix it. Today, Steve Girsky wrote a letter to all Opel workers, announcing that Bochum might stop making cars at the end of 2014 instead of after 2016, as announced earlier, Germany's Automobilwoche [sub] says. The only way to keep the plant open for another two years are concessions by the workers, says the letter. Good luck with that, Steve, and bad timing. As mentioned here ad nauseam, Opel workers have a contract that forbids plant closures and firings before the end of 2014. Girsky knows this contract is etched into granite, which would be quite painful if broken. His letter says that he will abide by the contract – but not for two years more. The unions did cut a deal with Opel last year, forgoing wage increases in return for two more years of keeping plants open. This deal can be canceled if the negotiations break down. However, if the negotiations officially break down, then it will be a war GM can't win. In the letter, Girsky tells Opel workers nothing they would not already know: "The situation in the European market is catastrophic." Sure, but workers at Volkswagen, BMW, Daimler don't have to worry. Opel depends on this market. Other German makers don't "It is an illusion to believe that we might get saved by a market that will recover soon." Sure, other German makers are saved by emerging markets. "We need a solution by February." Good luck with that. You honestly don't expect to threaten someone you can't fire before January 2015? The unions are appalled. Not by the demands, but by the abject stupidity. Said Metalworker Union chief Berthold Huber to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: "Never in my long career did I see negotiation as badly prepared and conducted as what Opel's management has been dishing up since the early summer of last year – and that means something." Steve Girsky was dispatched to Germany in early summer last year. Huber had no further comments. Banker Girsky knows: The only decisive way out of this mess is to take Opel bankrupt. The first steps towards a bankruptcy without giving up Europe completely have already been taken. Poor Karl-Thomas Neumann. He will inherit the biggest mess ever when taking over as CEO of Opel on March 1. He will miss the cushy days in China, and the occasional run-ins with Winterkorn and Piech will feel like a holiday compared to what awaits him. Already dubbed the ostrich, he should stick his head in the sand and wait for another CEO. from The Truth About Cars http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com

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