RUSSELSHEIM, Germany, Jan. 2 (UPI) -- Russelsheim, Germany, a city of 60,000, could share the fate of Flint, Mich., with General Motors Corp. laying off 5,500.
GM recently announced it would cut 10,000 jobs from two Opel plants in Germany and shift the jobs to a new plant in Poland, where an autoworker makes $7.20 an hour. The same job in Germany costs $38.10 an hour, the Chicago Tribune reported Sunday.
"In the worst-case scenario, almost one out of every four of today's 8 million or so industrial jobs (in Germany) could be lost by 2015," said a recent study by the Boston Consulting Group, which recommended German unions make major concessions on wages and work hours.
Siemens, Germany's fourth-largest private employer, currently employs more workers outside the country than inside. Siemens recently persuaded its German workers to return to a 40-hour work week from a 35-hour week.
