The Wall Street Journal announced Monday that American automaker General Motors (NYSE:GM) has laid off several hundred full-time contract workers at its Global Technical Center in Warren as well as other locations this weekend in its bid to shave $2 billion from its budget by the end of next year.
The cuts come nearly a month after 5,000 salaried employees agreed to a voluntary separation package that GM said would help it achieve close to 50% of its cost-cutting target, preventing further involuntary cuts.
GM spokeswoman Maria Raynal confirmed the reports on Monday that the automaker terminated “several hundred” contract workers Saturday, effective immediately. Most were full-time, she said. Raynal could not specify the other locations where people were terminated because contract employees are spread out across the organization.
“They’re in the global product development area in all different areas. It can be multiple different positions,” Raynal said. “It’s part of normal operations and it contributes to that saving, but we’re not sharing a specific number.”
In February, GM cut several hundred jobs from its global salaried workforce, telling employees that the cuts were based on performance and that the company needs to have a top-tier team to execute its transition to all electric vehicles. However, a week later, the automaker offered a voluntary separation program to most global salaried workers, saying if it got enough takers it would prevent involuntary job cuts.
Shares of GM are up 2.30% in mid-day trading on Monday.