Last month, General Motors posted a third-quarter profit of $1.7 billion US. Not bad for a company that, only just two years ago, was almost bankrupt and was saved thanks to a massive government bailout.
Yet its aim is to reduce costs and increase profits even more. GM representative Jay Cooney told the Detroit News: “GM is continually seeking ways to improve our operating performance and reduce complexity to deliver a world-class cost structure and profit margins.”
This, Cooney, says, includes “streamlining the business, so there could be a headcount reduction on a global basis”. This is corporate speak for laying off white-collar workers – initially in small numbers but with more to follow before the end of the year.
Most of the personnel cuts are focused on engineering, product development and corporate operations at GM’s headquarters in Detroit’s Renaissance Center.
The layoffs are part of GM CEO Dan Akerson’s cost-cutting plan, which includes eliminating the group’s worldwide duplicate operations.
“Literally, we have 7,000 more people working on the same amount of work on our competitors”, Akerson told The News in an interview back in June. “It’s just like the Communist Party in China in the 1960s. There has to be a cultural revolution here. The sun never sets on the GM Empire. Substitute ‘British Empire.’ That didn’t work either.”
Story References: DetNews
