Report: 'Black Monday' Looms for GM Employees

General Motors’ cost-cutting plan could hit home in a big way for salaried employees next week.

While the automaker has already begun cutting its salaried workforce, part of a broader streamlining push that includes plant closures and model discontinuations, sources claim Monday could bring widespread pink slip action.

According to two sources who spoke to Automotive News, GM CEO Mary Barra’s plan to cut 15 percent of GM’s salaried employees will hit hard on Monday, which one advisor reportedly referred to as “Black Monday.”

Reducing a salaried workforce of roughly 54,000 North American employees by 15 percent means some 8,000 jobs need to go. Some already have. Late last year, GM offered voluntary buyouts for salaried staff, and AN reports some 1,500 contract workers and 2,250 white collar types have already sprung for the bait.

That leaves GM over 4,000 employees shy of its target. According to the sources, the looming cuts should take place over the course of several weeks.

GM, which hasn’t made its existing salaried cuts public, responded to the report by stating, “We are not confirming timing. Our employees are our priority. We will communicate with them first.”

Thousands more hourly workers stand to lose their jobs as the automaker shutters two transmission plants and three assembly plants in the U.S. and Canada, with the overall cuts expected to free up $6 billion annually by 2020. The plants, including Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly, Lordstown Assembly, and Oshawa Assembly see their flow of product dry up over the course of 2019.

The move will see five models — the Chevrolet Cruze, Volt, and Impala, Buick Lacrosse, and Cadillac XTS — drop from GM’s lineup, though the Cadillac CT6, built at Detroit-Hamtramck, will apparently live on.

[Image: General Motors]