With American automotive giant General Motors struggling to survive amid the worst car industry downturn since 1982, employees of the company's European subsidiary Opel laid down their tools on Thursday to take part in mass demonstrations in a last ditch effort to save their jobs.
Over 15,000 workers gathered at Opel's flagship factory in the western German industrial city of Rüsselsheim near Frankfurt with a total of 60,000 people joining protests at 14 Opel factories across Europe. "It is no longer five to midnight, the clock has already struck midnight," Klaus Franz, head of Opel's works council, told the gathered workers at Opel headquarters. "There is only one single chance, and that is spinning off Opel from the GM group."



























