GM idles 2 plants for week to cut down on inventory

A GM official said bankruptcy is not an option.

COMBINED DISPATCHES

DETROIT — General Motors Corp. will temporarily close two factories for one week each in the coming months to keep inventory in line with lower demand, the company said Monday.

Spokesman Tony Sapienza said the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Plant will be idled for one week starting Nov. 24. The factory employs 1,785 people and makes the Buick Lucerne and Cadillac DTS sedans.

A factory in Bowling Green, Ky., that makes Chevrolet Corvettes and the Cadillac XLR sports cars will be idled the week of Dec. 1. The plant employs about 900 workers. GM previously said that the Cadillac assembly line will be shut down that week.

Lucerne and DTS sales are each down 32 percent through the first nine months of the year. Cadillac XLR sales are off 26 percent and Corvette sales are off 9 percent.

The plants are scheduled to reopen after the one-week shutdowns.

GM has made announcements cutting more than 4,300 factory jobs in the past two weeks due to the shrinking U.S. auto market.

It also extended the temporary shutdown of its Wilmington, Del., assembly plant for three more weeks because of slow demand for the vehicles it makes. The factory’s 1,500 workers make the Saturn Sky, Pontiac Solstice and Opel GT two-seat roadsters. The plant will be idled starting this week and reopen the first week of December.

GM said earlier this month that it will cut the plant’s second shift starting Dec. 8, indefinitely laying off 400 workers.

In addition to cutting the second shift at Wilmington, GM announced earlier this month that about 700 workers at its pickup truck plant in Pontiac will be furloughed starting Feb. 1, and another 500 at the Detroit-Hamtramck sedan factory will be laid off starting Jan. 12.

The automaker also announced it would shutter its metal parts stamping factory near Grand Rapids by the end of 2009, costing 1,520 jobs. It also sped up the end of SUV production at its Janesville, Wis., plant to Dec. 23, eliminating another 1,200 positions.

Meanwhile, GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz reiterated Monday that bankruptcy would not solve GM’s problems.

“Bankruptcy for GM certainly is not an option,” Lutz said while speaking to the Public Relations Society of America. “The board has never talked about it.”

GM is burning through immense amounts of cash and has suffered this year as automotive industry sales have declined.

“It’s not something that we consider would be constructive or would solve any problems for anyone,” Lutz said.

Through the first half of the year, GM burned through $1.05 billion a month in cash, and analysts have raised concerns about whether or not the company can make it through 2009. To deal with that situation GM is looking for every possible way to raise money.

In July, GM announced plans to cut salaried jobs, executive pay, salaried retiree health care and 150,000 additional units of annual truck production in an effort to conserve and raise $15 billion. GM has also said it is reviewing options for the sale of its Hummer brand and would like to sell its headquarters complex, the Renaissance Center, and lease it back from a buyer.

GM is also in discussions with Cerberus Capital Management to acquire Chrysler, but Lutz declined to respond to questions about a time frame.

“There is no time frame at all for having anything definitive at all,” Lutz said. “We can’t comment on that.”