Toledo Powertrain to begin 8-week shutdown on May 11

4/28/2009

General Motors Corp. announced Tuesday that its Toledo Powertrain plant will begin what is expected to be an eight-week shutdown on Monday, May 11 because of slow sales.

The layoff, affecting most of the plant's 1,400 employees, is necessary to allow the troubled automaker to 'reduce inventory levels and to align production output,' plant spokesman Wanda Wellman said.

GM announced April 23 that it intended to reduce its production by approximatly 190,000 vehicles in the second and early third quarters. In addition, approximately 200 workers at the Toledo Powertrain's second shift will be off an additional week, beginning what will be an expected nine-week shutdown on Monday, May 4, Ms. Wellman said.

About 1,500 workers at GM's Defiance will observe 'rolling down weeks' beginning May 11 through the traditional two-week shutdown June 29, with regular production operations to resume July 13, Ms. Wellman said. Workers who make iron blocks and heads at the plant are currently only scheduled to work the week of June 1, while workers who make transmission components and cranks are scheduled to work the weeks of May 25 and June 1. Workers in the Defiance plant's aluminum department are scheduled to work each week through until June 15, Ms. Wellman said.