FRANKFURT (AFP) - Production at the Bochum factory of German car maker Opel was halted for the fifth day in a row as employees refused to return to work in protest at plans by the US parent company, auto maker General Motors, to slash 12,000 jobs in Europe.
Workers, ignoring calls by both politicians and the factory's own works council for a return to work, voted unanimously at the beginning of the early shift on Monday to again halt production.
Production at Bochum has been halted since Thursday, when GM announced the massive job-cutting plans.
The workforce was demanding guarantees from management that there would be no compulsory redundancies at the Bochum plant, a spokesman for the workers said.
On Sunday, Economy Minister Wolfgang Clement had again urged workers to return to work so as not to jeopardise talks between management and unions scheduled to begin on Monday.
"Employees who stand in front of the gates will not improve the chances of safeguarding the plant," he said on ARD German public television.
The regional premier of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Peer Steinbrueck, also called for calm.
He could understand workers' anger, but striking would not improve the situation, Steinbrueck said.
"If we want to have a long-term perspective for the Bochum site and avoid compulsory redundancies, we have to remain level-headed and professional in the way we go about finding a solution," he said.
The head of the general works council at Opel, Klaus Franz, took a similar line.
In an interview published in the Monday edition of the business daily Handelsblatt, he said that the work stoppages at Bochum were understandable from an emotional point of view.
But the action could jeopardise negotiations between management and unions.
"We need an intelligent strategy on the part of workers that entails both negotiation and fight," he said.
Franz said the negotiations could take sometime.
"The issues are so complex and could have such fundamental consequences that I'm not expecting results in on or two weeks," he said.