Opel talks
October 13, 2009
"It's quite possible to see documents signed this week," Henderson said during his first visit to China since GM was restructured last summer.
On Monday, Opel labor leader Klaus Franz said talks aimed at selling 55 percent of General Motors' European unit to Austrian-Canadian automotive group Magna and its Russian partner Sberbank are making progress after workers agreed to cost concessions.
Magna and Sberbank have vowed to inject 500 million euros into Opel as they make an aggressive push into the Russian auto market
"We are on the home stretch but there a few more points to clear up," Franz told Reuters news agency, explaining that decisions about which factories will be affected by job cuts are yet to be made.
"I expect the contract to be signed in the course of this week," he said.
German sources have quoted negotiation insiders as saying that the deal is expected on Thursday.
Wage sacrifice
Union officials say Opel's 50,000 workers - half of whom are based in Germany - are prepared to forego holiday and vacation payments to help Opel make annual savings worth 265 million euros (US$390 million) in return for a 10 percent stake in the company.
A German government committee has approved a 4.5-billion-euro state loan guarantee to back the deal, according to a report published in Der Spiegel magazine.
But other European countries with Opel factories, including Britain, Spain and Belgium, are concerned that the deal's German focus means they will bear the brunt of the expected 10,500 jobs cuts.
UK union deal struck
On Tuesday, British union Unite announced it had agreed to a deal with Magna that would secure the future of GM's Vauxhall plants at Ellesmere Port and Luton in return for cost savings, including a two-year salary freeze.
Unite co-leader Tony Woodley said the agreement removed the uncertainty around the plants, which together employ some 5,500 workers, and provided workers with "job security and a future through to 2013."
However, similar negotiations in Spain between Industry Minister Miguel Sebastian and European Magna boss Siegfried Wolf have made no such progress.
The head of the works committee at the Opel factory in the small northern town of Figueruelas, Jose Juan Arceiz, was unhappy with plans to relocate some production to another Opel factory in Germany.
"Magna, without clear economic data, continues to say it is necessary to move the production of the three-door Corsa model to Eisenach," he said.
sje/dc/Reuters/dpa
Editor: Kate Bowen