Randomly Noted

If anyone should feel aggrieved by the latest twist in the General Motors-Opel-Germany spat it’s the labor unions. Only a month or so ago, they were the darlings of Germany’s political establishment. Scrambling to prevail in September federal elections, politicians from Chancellor Angela Merkel on down were labor’s best friends.

Their spiel generally went like this: Opel should be sold to the bidder who would protect the maximum number of jobs; Germany taxpayer money would be forthcoming; and only one purchaser had the workers’ interest at heart – the Magna+Sberbank combination linking a Russian bank with a Canadian-Austrian auto parts maker. Also integral to the pols’ mantra: Another potential buyer, private equity firm RHJ International, would pillage Opel’s German factories in the manner of those “vulture” funds so despised by the German chattering classes.

Fast forward, Merkel and coalition partner FDP are ensconced in power, GM is keeping control of Opel – and the workers? Who? If you pore over the comments of German politicians in the past several days, you’ll see little to no mention of job protection. Quite the contrary. The message from Berlin is consistent: No federal financial assistance will go to aid GM, that hapless American giant, in restructuring Opel’s inefficient operations and help assure its survival and the longevity of German manufacturing jobs. No, that largesse was reserved only for Magna-Sberbank. If any public money is forthcoming, the federal pooh-bahs snarl, it will have to come from those German states which house Opel factories. It would all seem extremely odd if it weren’t so ultra-political and even predictable.So, what’s next? In all likelihood, the German politicians are playing hard-to-get and will eventually provide some modicum of federal financial aid to GM, if only to placate workers in states with iffy Opel factories. GM, for its part, should keep looking for ways to fix Opel on its own and focus on one thing only: How to restore Opel to its former rigor.