General Motors Corp. will cut an additional 7,000 to 8,000 factory jobs in the United States, kill the Pontiac brand and shed 2,600 dealers by 2010 under a revised business plan developed with the Obama administration and announced today.
The new job cuts bring the total number of hourly jobs eliminated under GM’s plan to 21,000. GM said additional cuts among salaried workers would be expected, but did not give a specific target.
Source: Detroit Free Press
The 7,631 United Auto Workers who accepted early retirement and buyout offers this week from General Motors Corp. — more than 53 percent of whom work in Michigan — will make room for laid off workers to reclaim their jobs.
But GM likely will not be able to hire lesser-paid workers until the worst sales market in 27 years improves.
“We certainly hope to be able to realize some of that (savings) going forward, but clearly the evaporation in sales put a hold on that,” GM spokesman Tony Sapienza said. “When the dust settles, we’ll still have people laid off, but we’ll be able to bring a lot of laid off people back to work.”
Source: The Detroit News
General Motors Corp. said Thursday that 195 union workers at its Shreveport assembly plant accepted a buyout from the financially troubled auto giant.
The workers are among 7,500 workers nationwide who decided to take the deal, GM said. That represents about 12 percent of GM’s hourly work force represented by the United Auto Workers.
GM offered $20,000 cash and a $25,000 voucher to buy a car to all of its 62,400 hourly U.S. employees as part of an effort to further trim its blue-collar payroll.
Source: AP, Forbes
General Motors Corp. began white-collar layoffs today, telling about 160 workers at the Warren Technical Center that their last day will be April 1.
The move is just the beginning of GM’s plans to cut 3,400 salaried jobs in the United States this year. Worldwide, GM plans to cut 47,000 workers by the end of the year.
Source: Detroit Free Press
General Motors Corp. plans to cut its work force by 47,000 this year and close five more U.S. plants under a viability plan it submitted to the U.S. Treasury on Tuesday as part of its effort to land between $9 billion and $12 billion more in federal loans.
The five plants the struggling automaker plans to close are in addition to the nine plants it previously said it planned to shutter.
GM also plans to reduce its dealerships from 6,246 in 2008 to 4,700 by 2012, and to 4,100 by 2014. Most of this reduction will take place in metro and suburban markets, GM said.
Source: Dayton Business Journal
General Motors Corp. plans to cut one of the two remaining shifts at its plant in Lordstown, Ohio, in April, a person briefed on the plans said Friday. The person, who asked not to be identified because the plans have not been finalized, said workers have been told some of them will be indefinitely laid off, and an official announcement could come as soon as Monday.
Production cuts at Lordstown likely are a sign that further cuts could be coming at other GM factories, since Lordstown stamps parts for and assembles the Chevrolet Cobalt and Pontiac G5, two of GM’s least expensive and most fuel-efficient vehicles that have sold well in the down economy.
Source: The Canadian Press
According to Reuters: “European investors remain upbeat about India despite an accounting scandal at IT company Satyam Computer Services (SATY.BO) that sent Indian markets tumbling on Wednesday.
Shares in the IT group fell almost 80 percent after founder and chairman Ramalinga Raju admitted inflating the company’s reported cash and bank balances by over 50 billion rupees ($1 billion).
While shaken by what has been dubbed “India’s Enron”, some investors say they will wait for signs of widespread malfeasance among Indian companies before deciding whether to change their investment policy on India.”
Update: Ramalingam Raju, the chairman of troubled Indian IT outsourcing company Satyam Computer Services, resigned on Jan. 7, 2009, admitting the firm had falsified accounts and assets and inflated its profits over several years.
According to San Jose Business Journal: “With its latest monthly U.S. sales down by more than a third, Toyota Motor Corp. is weighing further production cuts at its North American auto plants.”
“In December New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. , a joint venture between General Motors and Toyota to build vehicles in the United States, announced plans to close down for a couple of weeks over the next two months.”
“In November NUMMI said it would cut a shift from its Tacoma pickup line. The plant has about 4,800 workers.”
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