General Motors Corp. said on Monday it will cut about 30,000 jobs or 9 percent of its total work force, close or curtail operations at 12 plants in North America and slash the amount of vehicles it produces by 1 million as it attempts to reduce costs by $7 billion.
GM said it hoped to be able to achieve many of these cuts through attrition and early retirement programs. The troubled automaker also said an agreement with the United Auto Workers union will allow it to cut employee health care costs by about $3 billion annually.
GM has been grappling with high health-care and commodities costs, loss of U.S. market share to foreign rivals, and slumping sales of large sport utility vehicles that used to be its profit centers, but have now lost popularity due to high gasoline prices.