It will be another week before General Motors Corp. gets all its plants back online in the wake of a crippling supplier strike that cost the automaker 2.8 billion dollars, the company said Tuesday.
“We'd like to get started as soon as possible but it really depends on the parts situation,” GM spokesman Tony Sapienza told AFP.
It will likely take until Monday for GM to get enough parts to resume production at all of the 36 plants affected by the 87-day strike, he said.
But not all of those plants will be going full-speed.
GM plans to cut shifts at four different assembly plants next month because of a glut of unsold sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks, Sapienza said.
“We are pulling ahead in (headcount) reductions,” he added.
GM chipped in 215 million dollars to help finance the settlement ratified Thursday by workers at former subsidiary American Axle and Manufacturing Holding Inc.
It kicked in the money after the United Auto Workers union staged local strikes at two GM assembly plants which analysts said were meant to pressure the automaker to step into the negotiations.
Those two strikes, which are now resolved, pushed the cost of GM's labor woes over three billion dollars, the company said in securities filings.
Production was cut by 330,000 units because of the American Axle strike and 33,000 units due to the strikes at GM plants in Kansas and Michigan.
Meanwhile, Citigroup Inc. cut its GM rating to “hold” from “buy,” noting the company continues to burn cash while raw material prices are rising.
“Auto fundamentals are poised to deteriorate beyond 2008,” the analysts concluded.
