Spanish Workers Approve Opel Deal With Magna
October 26 2009 - 11:22AM
Dow Jones News
Workers at Opel's Spanish plant have approved a deal reached
Thursday with Magna International Inc. (MGA), press officials from
Spain's two biggest unions said Monday.
Spanish unions last week had already reached a preliminary
agreement, but workers' assemblies still had to approve the
deal.
Spain's Industry Minister Miguel Sebastian Friday said his
government would give financial aid to Opel, if workers approved
the deal with Magna.
A deal involving General Motors Co. selling its majority stake
in Opel to a consortium including Austrian-Canadian car parts maker
Magna and Russia's OAO Sberbank (SBER.RS) was expected to be signed
in early October, but suffered delays due to labor issues and
concerns about state aid.
The board of General Motors Co. will meet Nov. 3 to discuss
whether it wants to sell Opel to the Magna consortium.
Spanish workers had been concerned some of the production in
Opel's factory near Zaragoza, Spain, may be diverted to Eisenach,
Germany, and that too many Spanish jobs would be lost.
-By Bernd Radowitz, Dow Jones Newswires, +34 91 395 81 20,
djmadrid@dowjones.com