RPT-Opel workers pine for Magna, fear for future in GM

(Corrects story link in first paragraph)

By Edward Taylor

RUSSELSHEIM, Germany Nov 4 (Reuters) - Opel workers reacted with disappointment and concern on Wednesday to GM's [GM.UL] shock decision overnight to keep its European arm Opel rather than sell it to a group led by Canada's Magna MGa.TO. [ID:nL4519517]

"How can a company that is insolvent decide not to sell?" asked Anke Rezac, 35, speaking to Reuters outside Opel's headquarters and manufacturing plant here.

"I don't think that GM can hold on to Opel. They are just playing for time," said Rezac, who started work at Opel as a trainee at age 15.

Other workers directed venom at GM's American board for reversing course on plans to sell Opel, a decision that many fear will lead to thousands more job losses and plant closures than if Magna had won the day.

Half of Opel's 50,000 staff are based in Germany.

"I can only say that in GM's executive offices in America sit the biggest liars that the world has ever seen," one Opel worker raged in a German radio interview.

Even those workers who agreed with GM's decision said the company would have its work cut out to mop up the bad blood.

"If I were GM, I would also hold onto Opel," Opel worker Wolfgang Kruemmel, 64, told Reuters outside the Ruesselsheim plant.

"But all this back and forth has massively hurt confidence in our American partners. It's very important that GM takes steps to rebuild trust, otherwise the best workers will leave," Kruemmel said.

Workers also worried how GM would come up with the cash it needs to finance its European operations as a going concern.

"It's a black day for Opel," said one worker who asked not to be named, saying Magna's offer had been a workable solution.

"GM kept running out of money and we couldn't invest in the brand. There's also a question whether the employees will make the same concessions that they did for Magna," said the worker, who added that he had been employed by the company for more than 30 years.

Labour leader Klaus Franz on Wednesday rescinded hundreds of millions of euros in cost concessions that workers agreed to on condition that Opel would be bought by Magna, the Canadian group that Berlin had long favoured as a buyer.

Yet a union source conceded GM and Opel will have to work out a restructuring plan that some labour leaders believe could cost in Germany alone the closure of plants in Bochum, Eisenach and even Kaiserslautern. (Additional reporting by Peter Dinkloh and Nicola Leske; Writing by Jonathan Gould; Editing by David Holmes)