Opel workers want Magna

The mass circulation Bild newspaper quoted sources close to the negotiations as saying that the investment company RHJ and the Chinese automaker BAIC planned to talk with workers' representatives. Both companies face opposition from the workers, since both of their offers foresee more redundancies than the one from the Austrian-Canadian components manufacturer Magna.

The main Opel trade union, IG Metall, has criticised the economics minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, for his role in the process. The local union chief, Armin Schild, who is also on the Opel supervisory board, told the Berliner Zeitung newspaper, "It's unacceptable that the sharpshooters who are torpedoing the negotiations with Magna are being provided with ammunition by the Economics Ministry."

He said that workers still supported Magna, which was the only company which had so far sought talks with workers' representatives.

The head of the Opel works' council, Klaus Franz, has warned against a take-over by RHJ, a Belgian subsidiary of the US company Ripplewood. According to the Handelsblatt newspaper, he told workers that RHJ was working in the interests of General Motors, the current owner of Opel. Ripplewood, he said, would sell Opel back to GM as soon as it could, after using the state loan guarantees to win some time. That would lead to the eventual collapse of the company.

mll/AP/dpa/AFP/Reuters

Editor: Chuck Penfold