7,500 GM workers take retirement incentives

Many of the workers waited until the last minute to turn in their paperwork.

STAFF/WIRE REPORT

DETROIT — About 7,500 General Motors Corp. workers have signed up to take buyout and early-retirement incentives to leave the company, the automaker said Thursday.

The total included 247 workers from GM’s Lordstown complex.

Tony Sapienza, a GM spokesman, said the effect of the buyouts on Lordstown is being reviewed. It could reduce the number of upcoming layoffs, but that isn’t certain, he said.

Impacting that decision are expected sales at dealerships and how many of the workers follow through with their decision to leave.

The deadline to sign up was Tuesday, and many of the workers waited until the last minute to turn in their paperwork. The workers have seven days from the date they turn in the paperwork to rescind their decision, so many will have to decide by March 31.

The Lordstown assembly and fabricating plants had 4,200 hourly workers before GM started slashing production because of a drastic slowdown in auto sales. Staggered cuts have been made, but after today about 2,800 workers were to be laid off as the production of the Chevrolet Cobalt and Pontiac G5 goes from three shifts to one shift.

Overall, about 12 percent of the company’s U.S. hourly work force of 62,400 decided to leave, most through early retirement offers.

GM offered $20,000 cash and a $25,000 voucher to buy a car to all of its hourly U.S. employees in an effort to further trim its blue-collar work force to match reduced sales.

For those that will leave, the effective date of their departure is April 1.

Also, Chrysler LLC said Thursday it would extend its offers to entice blue-collar workers to leave the company. The old deadline was Friday.

Both GM and Chrysler are living on a total of $17.4 billion in government loans and are seeking another $21.6 billion. The Obama administration’s auto task force has indicated it may offer more aid, but further concessions are possible from both the companies stakeholders.

Both companies have to submit finalized restructuring plans to the federal government by March 31.

The latest round of buyouts and early retirements at GM was the third for the company since 2006. From all three offers, more than 60,000 workers have decided to leave the company.