Porsche extends deal with labor groups

Luxury sports car maker Porsche AG said Friday it reached a deal with its labor groups to ensure more production and investment at facilities in three German cities.

"The agreement gives us security to increase productivity by 6 percent annually until 2010," Chief Executive Wendelin Wiedeking said. The Stuttgart-based automaker will invest more than 600 million euros ($728 million) at the facilities in Stuttgart, Ludwigsburg and Weissach through 2010.

The deal, which was approved this week and announced Friday, will cover 8,300 of Porsche's approximately 11,600 workers. It replaces the current contract that was signed in 2000 and is set to expire at the end of the month.

Management and labor representatives had released some aspects of the new labor agreement last month, including a job guarantee for employees until 2010.

Porsche will also build a 200 million euros ($243 million) paint finishing system at its headquarters in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen and continue to produce all engines there.