ANTWERP –General Motors in Antwerp will only employ a total of 1,350 workers starting in 2010 – including labourers and office staff – if the plant is only to assemble 120,000 vehicles.

That is 1,850 fewer jobs than the initial cuts of 1,400 which were announced last month by GM Europe, the Gazet van Antwerpen reported on Thursday.

The figure of 1,350 was put on the table by the Antwerp management on Wednesday, says LBC trade union secretary Marc Van Thielen. Van Thielen says the work done by these 1,850 people will reportedly be “outsourced” from 2010.

At the same time production time per vehicle will have to be pushed down from 25 hours to 15 hours and the plant will have to make cutbacks to save EUR 75 million.

ACLVB and ACV confirm the figures but say that every effort should now be made to secure assembly of a third model (another 50,000 vehicles) at the plant. Management says that this is all speculation and that both parties are working together constructively to find solutions.

[Copyright Expatica News 2007]

Subject: Belgian news