Bochum staff voted for a return to work

Workers at the Bochum plant walked out last Thursday after GM announced it was to cut 12,000 jobs in Europe.

Vauxhall's Ellesmere Port plant in north-west England sent staff home on Wednesday as they ran out of parts because of the German strike.

The assembly line in Bochum was turned back on at about 1300 GMT.

Back in business

Some 6,400 employees out of Bochum's workforce of 9,600 voted for a return to work while 1,700 voted against.

Head of the workers council Dietmar Hahn described the decision as "wise".

But he said negotiations with GM managers would resume on Thursday.

"We will do our utmost so that management does not implement its horror plans," he said.

GM has said production at the Opel and Vauxhall factories would resume "shortly" - once the necessary parts arrive from the Bochum plant.

It said the financial impact of the strike had been "limited".

Protest action had stopped parts from getting through to the Ellesmere Port Vauxhall plant, a Transport and General Workers' Union spokesman told BBC News earlier on Thursday.

GM Europe Brands: Saab, Vauxhall, Opel Sales: 1.8m vehicles (2003) Employees: 63,000 Factories: 11 (Germany, Sweden, UK) Finances: $161m loss H1 2004 See General Motors' share price

When the plant at Bochum stopped producing parts, Opel in Ruesselsheim, Germany, and Antwerp, Belgium, were forced to stop production.

Loss-making GM Europe wants to cut 500m euros ($623.8m; �347m) from its budget.

Vauxhall workers have been told there will probably be more than 400 jobs cut in the UK - 340 at the Ellsemere Port plant in Merseyside and 94 at the van factory in Luton.

Unions have said that about 4,000 jobs will be lost at the Bochum plant in the Ruhr Valley in western Germany.

GM determined

Unions have demanded no plant closures and no redundancies.

But analysts have said GM is determined to press ahead with the cost saving measures.

But Bochum is still likely to be hit hard by the job cuts

The firm has not yet said which of its 11 European plants will be affected, but GM's German sites appear most vulnerable because of high labour costs.

Germany has the second-highest labour costs in the world, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

And of the German facilities, staff at Bochum, which makes Astra and Zafira models, look the most at risk after GM recently said the plant had a "competitiveness issue".

Management at Opel have said they will try to find a way of ensuring the survival of its main factories in Germany - including the Bochum plant - beyond 2010 while finding "socially acceptable" ways of cutting back on the numbers of employees.

GM Europe lost $161m in the first half of 2004, up from $68m one year earlier, according to the latest figures.

GM's European operations currently employ 64,000 people in total, and make the Opel, Vauxhall and Saab brands.