GM fires 6,000 more hourly employees

August 3, 9:37 PMBirmingham Autos ExaminerJonathan Alexander

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General Motors announced Thursday the decision to cut it's workforce even further and eliminate a total of 6,000 more hourly positions as the employees accepted the company's buyout offer.

Linked to the company's recent Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, the buyouts are intended to further the development of making GM a leaner and more efficient company.

After the buyouts are finalized GM's number of employed U.S. factory workers will be down to 42,000. GM says it intends to eliminate another 7,500 positions by year's end. Overall the company has terminated 66,000 U.S. factory workers since 2006. Additionally the now government-owned General Motors has intentions to cut 6,000 salaried positions by the end of the year will thin it's global executive ranks by 35%.

“One of the very tough, but necessary actions to position the company for long-term viability and success is to reduce our total U.S. workforce, both hourly and salaried employees,” Diana Tremblay, GM vice president of labor relations, told Automotive News.

GM has been steadily losing U.S. marketshare to fellow American automaker Ford for the past few months. Hopefully the money saved by slashing workforce will allow the company to better position itself with superior manufacturing and material quality as well as advertising to improve it's sales numbers.

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