GM Europe does not completely rule out possible plant closure

0 Comments | AFP, October, 2004

RUESSELSHEIM, Germany (AFP) — GM Europe, the European arm of General Motors, the world's biggest car maker, said it does not completely rule out possible plant closures as part of a 500-million-euro (610-million-dollar) cost-cutting package unveiled earlier.

"We can't rule out anything," GM Europe chief Fritz Henderson said Thursday with regard to fears that one or more factories, notably the main production site of GM's German unit Opel, might be shut down.

However, for the time being, the planned job cuts -- 12,000 from a total European workforce of 60,000 -- would be implemented via short-term measures, Henderson said.

Over the past few days, speculation has reached fever pitch that GM Europe could close a production site as part of its brutal...