Family Life

04.23.09 | FL News Team

General Motors will be almost entirely out of the car building business this summer. The company has not made it official yet but word has been leaked to several high profile news outlets. Speaking anonymously, company insiders say 15 of GM's 21 plants in the United States will go dark for nine weeks.

The shutdown will run from mid-May when the final 2009 model year vehicles will be built until the end of July when 2010 models will begin rolling off assembly lines. The United Auto Workers Union that represents thousands of men and women soon to be furloughed says it has meetings scheduled today and tomorrow with GM where it expects to be given given details.

The national fallout of such a massive and lengthy shutdown could be substantial. The roughly 55-thousand GM employees to be laid off will still receive about 72-percent of their normal paycheck but that is not the case for suppliers who may also have to shut down.

As for the future of the automaker, a GM official is saying bankruptcy is "probable" if a June 1st deadline is missed for a one-billion dollar debt payment to bondholders. That same day the company has to provide a viability plan to the White House Automotive Task Force.

Meanwhile, the struggling auto industry has hit home in Tonawanda. About 60 salaried employees have been issued pink slips at General Motors' engine plant. It is all part of the company's efforts to reduce its workforce. The cuts are part of 16-hundred layoffs announced by GM this week. The Tonawanda cutbacks represent about 30-percent of the plant's salaried employees.