Germany: Tesla tries to calm acquisition worries

Luxury electric carmaker Tesla has offered more sweeteners to try to quell unrest at Grohmann Engineering, a key German supplier, whose founder and chief executive has not been seen at work for weeks, German labor officials said on Wednesday.

Grohmann, a maker of automated manufacturing systems which Tesla agreed to buy last November, is key to the Silicon Valley carmaker’s bid to succeed in the mass market by massively ramping up its output.

Since November, Tesla has given job guarantees and pay rises to the firm’s 700 employees in the small town of Pruem close to the Belgian border, under threat of strike action organised by powerful trade union IG Metall.

The head of Grohmann’s works council, Uwe Herzig, told a news conference, “In November we were told that everything would remain the same, and then on March 31 we were surprised to hear that he will retire,” Herzig added Klaus Grohmann had not been seen at the company since then.

Full Content: Reuters

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