General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson revealed earlier this month that the Detroit automaker was planning to thin its white collar ranks by 20 percent by year’s end, but a new report reveals the job cut will be made by the end of October.
GM will make the 4,000 or so job cuts through layoffs and terminations. “This is what we’ve talked about — a leaner organization with fewer levels of management,” GM spokesman Tom Wilkinson told Automotive News. “You start to see what the new organization will look like.” GM informed its employees of the plan on Wednesday.
In tandem with a plan to reduce its executive ranks by 34 percent, GM will shed about 6,100 salaried jobs this year, bringing white collar employment down to 23,500. In contrast, GM employed more than 49,000 white collar workers in 2000.
Those salaried workers affect by the cuts will have until the end of August to accept a six month severance package.
Although GM will take a significant chunk out of its white collar work force, it pales in comparison to the job losses at the automaker’s factories. In the last three years, GM has reduced its blue collar workforce by 60,500 – representing more than half of its total blue collar workforce.



06/24, 10:38 AM
posted by:
Borat
I am sure they all will need to relocate to DC to work for either Treasury or Dept of Transportation: whoever oversees GM at the time.
06/24, 10:53 AM
posted by:
johnnycanuck
It’s just temporary. Once the Cruze and its Chinese Buick variant hit the showrooms in 2025 GM will be begging these guys to come back.
06/24, 10:54 AM
posted by:
mayer_ray_nagin
I thought you cant nuke civil servants. Cant they be reassigned to free condom distribution as part the the porkulous plan? Condoms and porking go hand in hand
06/24, 11:25 AM
posted by:
Borat
Help me understand how condoms and porking goes hand in hand? Have you ever saw pigs using condoms?
06/24, 11:39 AM
posted by:
jayjc08
Talking about job cuts (and maybe porking), everyone should watch this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thR-lVuztIY&feature=player_embedded
06/24, 11:51 AM
posted by:
mayer_ray_nagin
Borat, of course I have seen that. I have internet access.
Jay – great vid. Gangster government is what we get when the Chitcago political mafia occupies the whitehouse
06/24, 12:34 PM
posted by:
leftwingagenda
blah blah blah…different day, same irrelevant blathering…
i do kinda have an issue with this spin, though: “Although GM will take a significant chunk out of its white collar work force, it pales in comparison to the job losses at the automaker’s factories. In the last three years, GM has reduced its blue collar workforce by 60,500 – representing more than half of its total blue collar workforce.”
yet the article states the white collar work force was 49k in 2000 and will be 23.5k when cuts are done… that is also “more than half of its total (white) collar workforce” – to paraphrase…those cuts were just on a longer time scale…3 years vs 9 years…
so i don’t exactly see a >50% cut in the white collar workforce as paling in comparison to a >50% cut in the blue collar work force…the timelines are different, sure, but the results (as presented) are the same…>50% cuts in both…
06/24, 12:38 PM
posted by:
leftwingagenda
the point i’m trying to get at, but probably didn’t emphasize enough, is that it may be popular to spin this story by demonizing the white collar worker (saving more of their own jobs, while cutting more blue collar jobs) but there have been large cuts on both sides of the white/blue collar divide…
06/24, 12:40 PM
posted by:
carstuff
because one is 25,000 and the other is 60,000.
06/24, 12:44 PM
posted by:
mayer_ray_nagin
Leftwingagenda wrote:
……….”i do kinda have an issue”
That’s the understatement of the year
06/24, 4:33 PM
posted by:
carstuff
For those who say buying a car made in America is the same as buying a domestic vehicle:
In 1999 there were 1.3 million automotive employees in the US.
Today there are 646,000. And while some may be due to productivity gains most is due to jobs, both professional and hourly, going overseas.
06/25, 9:13 AM
posted by:
speedemon
LMAO!!!!!!!!Obama knows SQUAT about being gangster!!!!!!Bush stole The White House and ran the country in to the ground!!!NOW THATS GANGSTER!!!!!!!!!!!!