The day the factories stopped

摘要

Adam opel built his first cars in Ruesselsheim over 100 years ago. It was there on October 19th that thousands of German car workers marched under union banners to save their jobs. For 75 of those years, Opel has been owned by General, Motors (GM), the American car giant which has demanded severe job cuts across Europe, and particularly in Germany: 10,000 people-nearly a third of its workforce-are to lose their jobs in Ruesselsheim, Bochum and Kaiserslautern. For Ruesselsheim, a town of 60,000, it is a man-made disaster. Opel workers across Europe were determined to put on a show of solidarity. But unlike previous Opel walkouts-there have been four in as many years-this one was not about pay or shorter working hours. It was about survival. And that struggle involves employees at other German companies too, and not just those in the car industry.