Unions at General Motors' Opel plant in Spain said negotiations with management on a restructuring plan for the factory collapsed late on March 10.
The central government in Madrid immediately called a meeting between the two sides for March 11 to try and reach a deal over the plant in Figueruelas, northern Spain, which employs 7,000 people.
The head of the plant's works council, Juan Jose Arceiz, said the management had rejected a union proposal for a two-year wage freeze.
Last November GM scrapped its plan to sell Opel, including the Figueruelas plant, to Canadian auto parts manufacturer Magna International and its partner, Russian state-owned lender Sberbank.
Spain's auto manufacturing sector is the third-biggest in Europe, although it has no national automaker besides Seat, which is owned by Germany's Volkswagen.
It is also a major automotive exporter, with 18 factories belonging to some of the world's biggest automakers.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2010
