Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

GM to lay off 1,600 this week

|
|
 
  
Troy Clarke, president of General Motors, North America, talks during the company's press event at the North American International Auto Show at the Cobo Center on January 11, 2009 in Detroit, Michigan. (UPI Photo/Brian Kersey) 
Published: April 20, 2009 at 4:36 PM
Advertisement

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.

© 2009 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Additional Business News Stories
1 of 15
Rose McGowan at The Heart Truth's Red Dress Fall 2012 Collections at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week In New York
View Caption
fark
The most amazing portraits created with packing tape you will see all day
According to the United States Census Bureau, when a child is being watched by his father, that's...
You put a guy named Skeeter in charge of your charitable fund, of COURSE he's going to blow your...
Subby, for one, welcomes our new Pennsylvania Purple Squirrel overlords (with purple-pic)
The toughest place to be a train driver
"Can a man be 'slut-shamed?'" Well...yeah