2023-06-28 13:51:42
The Opel plant in Vienna-Aspern, founded in the early 1980s, will soon be closed for good. Operator Stellantis sees no future for the former General Motors plant, which currently employs around 300 people to manufacture transmissions. A comprehensive social plan is to be drawn up for the employees in the coming weeks, Stellantis announced on Wednesday. The city wants to set up a labor foundation.
“There is still no date for the end of production, talks with the works councils are now beginning,” the company said on the APA. The process will take several months. A job center will be set up for employees to offer help with changing jobs, including options within the group. Apart from the factory in Vienna-Aspern, Stellantis has no other production sites in Austria. Around 250 to 300 people are employed in sales in Germany.
In connection with the serious change in the automotive industry towards electromobility, the prerequisites for a sustainable future of the Aspern plant are not given, according to Stellantis, according to a press release. 6-speed manual transmissions for combustion engines are currently still being manufactured in Aspern, which means around 1,000 car transmissions per day. Stellantis wants to focus transmission production at the French site in Valenciennes.
It is not yet clear what will happen to the Austrian plant following its end. The owner of the property is the Bundesimmobiliengesellschaft (BIG). The operating area covers around 600,000 square meters. According to the city, the areas are part of the so-called “red zone”. This means that this area is protected for operational use and will not be rededicated.
The history of the Opel plant in Vienna began on August 23, 1979, when the then Federal Chancellor Bruno Kreisky (SPÖ) and GM Austria General Director Helmuth Schimpf signed a contract for the construction of an engine plant. At that time, Opel was part of the American General Motors (GM) group. At its peak in 1983, around 2,200 people were employed at the site. In August 2017, Opel became part of the French PSA group. In January 2021, Peugeot parent company PSA and Fiat Chrysler merged to form Stellantis.
In recent years, the plant has shrunk more and more. Engines were still being manufactured at the site until 2020. At that time, Aspern lost the last major order from General Motors, and the number of employees continued to decrease. The Corona period and problems due to a lack of chips also affected the location.
With the change in the automotive industry, the focus on electromobility and the associated progressive electrification of the Stellantis product range, the demand for 6-speed manual transmissions for combustion engines from Vienna is falling, according to the car manufacturer. Stellantis currently has 28 electric vehicle (BEV) models on the market and plans to almost double that number by the end of 2024.
Stellantis in Austria includes the car brands Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Citroën, DS Automobiles, Fiat and Fiat Professional, Jeep, Opel and Peugeot, the “mobility brand” Free2Move, the financial organizations Stellantis Financial Services and Leasys Austria as well as the dealerships Stellantis&You and the production plant in Vienna -Aspern. The distribution of the Maserati brand is organized separately.
Vienna’s Economic Councilor Peter Hanke (SPÖ) spoke in a reaction of a “sad decision”. In cooperation with the federal government, everything was done to keep the work going. “We have to acknowledge that the corporate strategy ultimately prevailed and not the quality of the location,” the city council said.
There are now talks with Economics and Labor Minister Martin Kocher (ÖVP) to support the employees concerned. On the part of the City of Vienna, there is already a well-functioning cooperation between the Viennese employee development fund (waff), the works council and companies.
According to Hanke, a work foundation was set up at waff in autumn 2018. Even then, the management and the works council had agreed on the establishment and financing of such a wave in view of a large wave of downsizing. This is necessary once more this time, according to Hanke. According to the city council, the foundation offers training and further education for a new professional start.
In addition, Wiener Stadtwerke will also approach those affected in a targeted manner. Hanke was convinced that the employees at the Stellantis factory were “top-trained specialists” who might find exciting new professional tasks at Wiener Linien, for example.
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