GM cuts work for 500 commercial truck workers

FLINT, Mich. January 24, 2003; The AP reported that General Motors Corp. is cutting work for 500 employees who make medium-duty commercial trucks because of slow sales in the weak economy, the company announced.

The layoffs are at the Flint Truck Assembly Plant.

"This downtime is again driven by the fact that we need to bring our inventories in line with where the market demand is for our product," said GM spokesman Dan Flores.

GM will shut the medium-duty truck line about one week a month through September, in addition to the standard two-week shutdown over the summer, Flores told The Flint Journal for a Thursday story.

The 500 affected workers will get company-funded supplemental unemployment benefits during the layoffs, replacing up to 95 percent of their earnings, the United Auto Workers union said.

GM moved its medium-duty commercial truck line to Flint from Janesville, Wis., last year. A second line in the Flint plant builds heavy-duty crew-cab versions of GM's Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra. About 3,500 people work at the plant.