As part of a commitment to achieve 100 percent or more capacity utilization of its plants by 2008, General Motors will need to close additional assembly and component plants and reduce its manufacturing employment levels by 25,000 or more jobs, the company announced. This would come on top of the 1 million-unit capacity reduction that has been achieved over the past three years.
The company expects to provide U.S. salaried employee headcount has been reduced 30 percent in the past five years, and continued reductions are planned for 2006.
“We have accomplished this in an orderly way, without disruption to our ability to execute our key business strategies, and we are now at global competitive levels of salaried productivity,” says Rick Wagoner, chairman and chief executive officer, “although we know we need to keep raising the bar.”