The head of German carmaker Opel, under pressure from parent General Motors' to end losses, refused to promise workers at its plant in Bochum that their jobs would be safeguarded beyond 2014.
The plant, located in the rust-belt Ruhr region devastated by coal mine closures, is expected to shut after the company chose to build the next generation of its popular Astra compact in Britain and Poland where wages are cheaper.
Unions say around 45,000 jobs are linked to the factory but a weak economy has hit car sales in Europe, forcing manufacturers to confront high fixed costs and a capacity overhang that GM says equates to 10 plants.
Germany has had few major plant closures in the last four years and a shut-down of Bochum could become an election issue in next year's federal vote.
Workers had been hoping Opel chief executive officer Karl-Friedrich Stracke would shed light on the company's plans but he said a mid-term business plan for GM's European operations would not be submitted to the supervisory board until June 28th.
"There is no decision for Bochum beyond 2014," said Mr Stracke.
Speculation that Bochum will close intensified after GM said last week that it would halt production of the Astra at Opel's main plant in Ruesselsheim, Germany, making the car only in Britain's Ellesmere Port and Gliwice in Poland.
German magazine Wirtschaftswoche reported yesterday that Opel's management had been preparing to shift production of the Zafira compact van from Bochum to Ruesselsheim to compensate for loss of the Astra, citing the works council.
Mr Stracke denied that such preparations for Bochum, which has a production capacity of around 160,000 cars a year, had been made.
"Demand for Opel vehicles across Europe plunged 16 percent in the first three months of the year. That's why GM will reduce capacities," said Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, director of the Centre for Automotive Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen. "I expect the Bochum factory to be shut down after 2014."
Ellesmere Port won the Astra contract after workers agreed to a four-year pay deal including a two-year pay freeze, making wages cheaper for GM.
Opel workers also committed to cut labour costs in a 2010 restructuring but on Saturday Germany's largest industrial union, IG Metall, agreed a 4.3 per cent pay rise, its biggest in 20 years on Saturday.
The wage deal was seen as a sign that Germany was willing to tolerate higher wages even if that pushes up inflation.
The German economy has resisted the recession seen in some European countries but unemployment in Bochum stands at 10.2 per cent, far higher than the national average of 7.0.
Reuters