GM Europe: 55,000 jobs, seven countries, one big headache

BERLIN: General Motors Europe, which includes the Opel unit which will be sold to Canadian car parts maker Magna International under a deal reached on Saturday, employs people in nearly every European country, with 55,000 in total.

Nearly half of this total (25,000) is employed in Germany at Opel plants in Bochum, Eisenach, Ruesselsheim and Kaiserslautern.

But GM Europe, which sold two million cars in 2008 giving it a market share of nine percent, also has factories in Belgium, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Great Britain as well as operations in Austria, France, Hungary and Ukraine.

Its turnover last year stood at 35 billion dollars (25 billion euros), making a loss of 1.6 billion dollars.

Following is a breakdown of GM workers across Europe, as it stood in 2008.

Germany: 25,000 employees at four main sites producing Opel brands such as the Astra, Corsa and Vectra. A major research and development centre is also located in Germany.

Spain: 7,000 employees in Barcelona and Zaragoza.

Britain: 4,700 employees at Vauxhall, mainly at Ellesmere Port and Luton.

Sweden: 4,000 employees at Saab.

Poland: 3,500 employees at an Opel plant at Gliwice.

Belgium: 2,500 employees producing Astras in Antwerp.

Italy: 1,800 employees.

Austria: 1,600 employees.

France: 1,500 employees.