GM to lay off 1,600 this week

DETROIT, April 20 (UPI) -- U.S. automaker General Motors Corp. said Monday it would cut 1,600 white-collar jobs over the next few days to help it qualify for government assistance.

In an e-mail, GM's North American President Troy Clarke said the automaker was "reinventing every aspect of our business, including our organizational size and structure to create a lean and agile company."

Clarke said the company was going through "very trying times … but especially for those employees directly impacted by these actions," the Kansas City Business Journal reported Monday.

In March, GM commenced laying off 3,400 salaried employees as part of a downsizing of 47,000 positions it expects to conclude by the end of the year.

Company spokesman Tom Wilkinson said GM would be close to its 3,400 reduction goal after the 1,600 layoffs were completed.

On Friday, Chief Executive Officer Fritz Henderson said GM needed "to go deeper and go faster in our operational restructuring."

GM is facing a May 31 deadline to trim costs or risk losing a federal line of credit that has been keeping it afloat.