HALLE, Germany — Gerhard Schroeder, the German Chancellor, won cheers yesterday from some 900 workers at a plant owned by Bombardier Inc. as he announced he had struck a deal to save their jobs, a wire service reports.
Mr. Schroeder intervened after Montreal-based Bombardier said in November it would close three European plants and convert two manufacturing sites to service facilities, ending production at its factory in the Halle suburb of Ammendorf and a plant in nearby Brandenburg.
Facing a general election in September, Mr. Schroeder has come under fire in recent months for failing to fulfill a promise of bringing down unemployment, particularly in the depressed former Communist east, where both the threatened plants are based.
The state of Saxony-Anhalt, where the Ammendorf factory is situated, has 19.1% unemployment. Mr. Schroeder told workers Bombardier had agreed to work with the regional government to turn the area into a modern centre for railway production, service and research.
Mr. Schroeder met Laurent Beaudoin, Bombardier’s chairman, in Berlin on the weekend and apparently persuaded him the Ammendorf plant could continue to win sufficient orders.
Production will still be halted at the smaller Vetschau plant in the state of Brandenburg and it is not yet clear whether a solution can be found to save jobs there.
Bombardier said it decided Ammendorf should complete orders already in production and be used for any final assembly activity stemming from additional demand.