Berlin: The German automaker Opel, a unit of stricken US giant General Motors, might cut 3,500 jobs if the government does not lend a helping hand, a press report said on Wednesday.
Salary cuts are already expected, warned GM Europe chief Carl-Peter Forster in an interview with the mass circulation daily Bild Zeitung, and “on top of that comes the elimination of hopefully no more than 3,500 posts,” he said.
“That is just what we want to avoid,” Forster added.
General Motors, which has asked the US government for around $30 billion (€24 billion) in loans, is also in talks with German authorities on how to save its German subsidiary, which employs almost 26,000 workers.
GM is also speaking with the governments of Belgium, Britain and Spain, where Opel also has factories.
Forster told Bild that “€3.3 billion in loans or direct share holdings by 2014 are needed to save all these sites.”