Mercedes jobs

Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche has given employees at the Mercedes plant at Sindelfingen an employement guarantee. Despite transferring part of the manufacture of the Mercedes C-Class to the United States, Sindelfingen "will not lose a single job," he told thousands of employees at a staff meeting on Monday.

"I will even make a binding commitment that the next generation of E- and S-Class Mercedes will be built in Sindelfingen," he said.

Zetsche cited a second consecutive month of strong Daimler sales in November as grounds for confidence. He even went so far as to promise the new projects would create 2,000 jobs.

Employee reactions were still cautious, however.

"We need that in writing, binding and clear," a spokeswoman for central works council chief Erich Klemm said.

New projects in the works

Zetsche encountered a chorus of boos and whistles as workers exhibited their displeasure at the staff meeting in Sindelfingen.

Since the decision to transfer construction of the C-Class Mercedes to the US and to Bremen, German workers have twice staged protests at the plant in Sindelfingen, with 15,000 walking off the job on Friday.

Zetsche defended the decision to move production to the US.

"One in five C-Class Mercedes sales worldwide are sold in the US," he said. "And it has undeniable benefits that, by 2014, one in five C-Class Mercedes will also be produced there."

sjt/dpa/AP
Editor: Sam Edmonds