Toledo Powertrain to begin 8-week shutdown on May 11

4/29/2009

General Motors Corp. announced Tuesday that its Toledo Powertrain plant on Alexis Road will begin what is expected to be an eight-week shutdown on 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," spokesman Wanda Wellman said.

GM announced April 23 that it intended to reduce its production by about 190,000 vehicles in the second and early third quarters.

In addition, about 200 workers on Toledo Powertrain's second shift are to start a layoff next week, giving them nine weeks off, Ms. Wellman said.

About 1,500 workers at GM's Defiance plant will observe "rolling down weeks" beginning May 11 through the traditional two-week shutdown that begins June 29, with regular production operations to resume July 13, Ms. Wellman said.

Employees who make iron blocks and heads at the plant are scheduled to work the week of June 1, and those who make transmission components and cranks are scheduled to work the weeks of May 25 and June 1. Those in the Defiance plant's aluminum department are scheduled to work each week until June 15, Ms. Wellman said.