Anxious Opel workers in Germany breathe sigh of relief

BOCHUM/RUESSELSHEIM, Germany (Reuters) - Workers at Germany's Opel plants breathed a sigh of relief on Thursday after months of agonizing over their fate, as the future of the European carmaker Opel seemed finally sealed.

Half of Opel's 50,000 workers are based in Germany's four plants and staff said they had been on tenterhooks about their jobs and the future of their firm as tense talks over the sale of Opel by its parent General Motors dragged on.

"You feel pretty rubbish when the squabbling goes on for such a long time -- it's been half a year already, nearly a whole year," said Edgar Hampel, at a plant in Bochum, in the industrial Ruhr area.

Workers said they were relieved GM had decided to sell Opel to Canadian supplier Magna, rather than rival bidder RHJ International, a financial investor, as Magna had promised to keep all the plants open and had more auto expertise.

Andrea Rosemann, a 46-year-old employee at Opel's headquarters in Ruesselsheim, said she was pleased Magna appeared to have won the bidding battle.

"Everything we heard about RHJ sounded like they were a locust merely interested in turning a quick profit," said Rosemann, who said she had broken out into a smile on hearing the news.

Opel is the main employer in Ruesselsheim, a town of about 60,000 people near Germany's financial center of Frankfurt. The sprawling red-brick factory employs some 17,500 people.

At the Eisenach plant in eastern Germany, which RHJ had said it would mothball for two years, workers were cautiously hopeful.

"We know at least that the factory has a future. Any other decision would have meant the end for us," said Reinhard Schaefer, a union representative at the plant, adding, however, there were still tough negotiations ahead with Magna.

Indeed, gloom over potential job losses dampened the overall mood and put a brake on celebrations. Both Magna and RHJ had said they would cut around 10,000 jobs across Europe.

"There are 5,000 workers here, which means many families could be affected," said Udo Linkewitz, at the Bochum plant.

"If the factory were to be closed, the whole region would die out."

Reactions in Britain, Belgium, Poland and Spain where Opel also has major sites, were mixed. Workers in Belgium, where RHJ had planned to shut Opel's Antwerp plant, were not sure what to make of the news.

Belgian ACV union official Luc Van Grinsven described the Magna deal as "the least bad option," given that Magna was at least willing to discuss the plant's future.

The mood in Britain was somewhat gloomier, as trade union Unite fears widespread job cuts at its plant in Ellesmere Port, in north-west England.

John Fetherston, lead convenor for Unite at the plant, which employs 2000 people, warned: "Unless Magna has changed its business plan, there are going to be problems." (Additional reporting by Erol Dogrudogan in Bochum, John Bowker in London, Philip Blenkinsop in Brussels; Writing by Sarah Marsh in Berlin; Editing by Charles Dick)