GM employees in the Azambuja plant (Portugal) are striking today in reaction to management’s decision confirmed yesterday in a negotiation meeting with the European Employees’ Forum (EEF) to close the plant for economic reasons. The employees reject the argument of management that Azambuja suffers from a severe cost competitive disadvantage compared to other plants in Europe.

In yesterday’s meeting, GME employees suggested some solutions to improve productivity in Azambuja. However, it became obvious that management would refuse to envisage any alternative to the closure of the plant. The European metalworkers’ unions (EMF) and the EEF represented in the EMF trade union coordination group consider that it has now reached the point where it has used all possible means to persuade GME to enter into a constructive dialogue on the industrial future of Azambuja and all other GME plants and that it has no other alternative than to launch protest actions.

This strike is the first of a series of actions which will be conducted in all GM European plants in solidarity with the Portuguese colleagues and in the fight for the industrial future of all GME plants.

“The fight for the Azambuja plant is the fight for the future of all plants and jobs in GM in Europe. Given GME’s latest declarations in the press, it is a European-wide disinvestment plan that we are now faced with and Azambuja is only the first in a series of plant closures planned by GME in Europe” declared Peter Scherrer, the EMF General Secretary.
GMe’s objective is to redeploy its activities to low-cost countries like Russia, China or Korea. This would obviously aggravate the existing overcapacities with the foreseeable consequence that three to six European plants would be threatened by closure between
2006 and 2014. The EMF wants to alert the political decision-makers at national and European level about this disinvestment, which would be an economical and social disaster for many regions in Europe.

The EMF trade union coordination group is determined to pursue protest actions in GME
plants in solidarity with the workers in Azambuja and in all plants threatened by GME
plans as long as management refuses to reconsider its unilateral decision to close the
Portuguese plant. This decision is also an infringement of the European framework
agreement concluded between GME management and the EEF and on 8th December
2004. According to this agreement “both parties intend to improve the competitiveness
of the European sites to enable their sustainable operations in the future” and also
agreed on principles to be respected regarding the future volume allocation and capacity
utilization as well as site selection processes.

The EMF demands that GME now respects its previous commitments vis-à-vis GME
employees and works with its employee representatives in good faith towards
sustainable and socially responsible solutions for the viability of all GME plants in Europe.

_____________
PRESS 14/2006
Editor, Peter Scherrer, EMF General Secretary