FRANKFURT (AFP) - General Motors' European restructuring plans appeared in for a further rough ride as wildcat strikes to protest the US automaker's plans to slash 12,000 jobs were set to spread.
A number of factories were set to join a Europe-wide day of labour action called in response to GM's announcement last week that it plans to slash around one fifth of its workforce in the region in a bid to steer its European operations back into profit after six years of losses.
Workers at its Opel unit halted production at a factory in Bochum, northwest Germany, for the fifth day in a row on Monday, where 4,000 of 9,600 employees are set to lose their jobs and the whole plant may be shut down in two years.
All of the of the factory's employees were expected to attend a meeting on the layoffs on Tuesday.
Production at both Opel's main factory in Ruesselsheim, near Frankfurt, was to be halted temporarily on Tuesday, and some 2,500 workers were also expected to lay down tools at the factory in Kaiserslautern.
Workers at factories operated by General Motors in Britain, where 400 jobs are to be cut, were also set to down tools briefly.
"Vauxhall workers in the UK will be joining the international day of action tomorrow in their thousands," said Steve Hart, an official at Britain's Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU).
Meetings were to be held at Opel's Polish factory in Gliwice and Spanish plant in Zaragoza, but no work stoppages were expected.
With every sign that both sides were prepared to dig their heels in over the escalating labour conflict, politicians called for an end the wildcat strikes and urged employees to enter into constructive talks with management in order to safeguard the long-term future of the site.
As representatives of Opel's general works council and GM Europe held a first meeting on Monday, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder called on employees to end their strikes.
The chancellor called for "negotiations to begin, so that the assembly lines can start up again," also urging that "the interests of employees be upheld alongside the need to undertake reforms."
After almost 10 hours of talks neither GM Europe managers nor Opel general works council representatives made any comment about the situation.
But the head of the general works council at Opel, Klaus Franz, warned GM executives they faced the prospect of a European version of the two-month strike at a motor factory in Flint, Michigan in 1998 that paralyzed production.
"We are here at the birth of a second Flint, and the Americans should be aware of that," he told journalists.
The work stoppages in Bochum were already having a knock-on effect on supply of parts used to build Opel's Astra model at factories elsewhere in Europe, said the head of Bochum's works council Lothar Marquardt.
A Europe-wide stoppage could cost General Motors 10-30 million euros (12-37 million dollars) a day, he estimated.
A labour expert in Munich, Volker Rieble, dubbed the stoppages wildcat strikes, since the unions had not officially called for them and they were not directly connected with concrete wage demands.
As such, the wildcat strikes are illegal under Germany's labour laws.