GM expected to start cutting 4,000 jobs
It is Black Monday for workers at General Motors.
The automaker is expected to start its next round of white-collar job cuts Monday, but the carmaker apparently has fewer staff reductions left to make than has been anticipated.
In November, GM said it needed to reduce its North American white-collar workforce by about 8,000. About 2,250 salaried workers volunteered to take a buyout, leaving as many as 5,750 workers still to be cut.
But on Friday a GM spokesman said the automaker had trimmed about 1,500 contract jobs, meaning about 4,000 more staff jobs will be cut, according to the Detroit Free Press.
Many salaried workers inside GM have said they and colleagues have been on pins and needles for the past two months, ever since GM said it would make involuntary cuts. Those who spoke to the Free Press did so on the condition of anonymity for fear of losing their jobs.
The employee said some department leaders have told workers to forego scheduling vacation time in the first two weeks of February, an insinuation that the involuntary cuts will be made at that time.
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Many of GM’s hourly workers in the United States and Canada have held protests and prayer vigils in a campaign to persuade the automaker to reverse its Nov. 26 GM announcement to indefinitely idle five plants in North America. More than 6,200 jobs are at stake.
GM said its decision to cut nearly 14,000 jobs and idle five plants in North America will save $2 billion to $2.5 billion in 2019.
GM is scheduled to release its fourth-quarter earnings on Wednesday.