May 30th, 2008 by Liz Opsitnik
GM announced yesterday that more than a quarter of its hourly workers are expected to leave by July due to buyout and retirement offers, reports USA Today.
Those taking the buyout and retirement deals amount to 19,000 of the 73,000 hourly workers at GM. GM is one of the many automakers trying to cut costs and reduce production goals because of a frail economy and high gas prices.
GM was hoping that about 20-25,000 employees would take the buyout and retirement offer. Sluggish auto sales have resulted in the automaker having more employees than it needs.
Rival Ford only had about 4,200 employees take their buyout offer, out of a goal of 10,000. Ford announced this week that they are now planning to hand out involuntary layoffs to about 2,000 salaried employees.
GM will most likely hire new workers at a much lower hourly rate with a smaller benefits package. This latest round of buyouts brings the total to about 53,000 hourly workers cut in the past two years.
With the entire automotive industry declining as a whole, there aren’t a lot of options for those employees who will soon be looking for work somewhere else.
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