Friday, December 05, 2008

Laid off news staffs have lots of company


Newspaper staffers are not alone today when it comes to "layoffs" and northeast Ohio is feeling the brunt.


General Motors said today it will cut shifts at Lordstown, OH, Union Township, MI, and Oshawa, Ontario, starting Feburary 2 due to slowing demand for their products.

At Lordstown, where GM makes the Chevrolet Cobalt and Pontiac G5 small cars, 890 workers will go on indefinite layoff starting Feb. 2 when GM ends a third shift at the sprawling complex. That is in addition to the 1,100 layoffs at Lordstown announced last month.

"It seems like every time you wake up more good news hits you," said a frustrated Jim Graham, president of UAW Local 1112, which represents Lordstown assembly plant workers.

The layoffs amount to 2.4 percent of GM's North American blue-collar work force of 84,000. So far this year, GM has announced 11,000 factory worker layoffs in the U.S.

Blog comment: Will there be any jobs left for the bailout to save?

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