GM offers a new round of buyouts

GM offers a new round of buyouts

DETROIT — General Motors Corp., eager to lower wages and staunch the kinds of losses it saw in 2007, said today it is offering a new round of buyouts to all 74,000 of its U.S. hourly workers represented by the United Auto Workers.

Workers will be given the details of the buyouts over the next several weeks. Most of those who accept are expected to leave by July 1, the company said.

UAW Local 1112 in Lordstown issued a flier today that listed the options and said that meetings will be coming soon. Details on when workers will have to make their decisions will be released then, the union said.

In 2006, 1,600 workers at the Lordstown assembly and fabricating plants took similar offers, so GM eliminated the midnight shift at the complex. About 3,400 hourly workers were left.

GM won’t say how many workers it hopes to shed or how much it expects the buyouts to cost, but under its new contract with the UAW, it will be able to replace up to 16,000 workers doing nonassembly jobs with new employees who will be paid half the old wage of $28 per hour.

Union officials at Lordstown couldn’t be reached for comment.

For the complete story, see Wednesday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com.