General Motors Cuts Its Pickup Production’s Overtime Shifts

By Author: Marty Bay
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General Motors has currently decided on cutting the overtime shifts of the production of pickups in its Flint, Michigan Plant that assembles the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra due to high volumes of these vehicles.

The cut on the overtime would affect the five Saturday shifts that would happen in the month of September and October. This means that workers will no longer work for extra hours as opposed to the previous plan.

This current reduction of overtime shifts was actually the second cancellation for this month since General Motors has announced earlier this month that it would also cut the extra working time of the company’s employees in its assembly plant located in Fort Wayne, Indiana due to the same reason.

General Motors has implemented this policy after a thorough examination of the current supply of pickups that they intend to distribute to their dealerships across the US for new car finders to purchase either on cash basis or by using some of the available auto financing options.

GMs has recently ...
... found out that they have a high amount of pickup trucks on their inventory and pursuing the proposed overtime shift on its two assembling plants would further increase the surplus supplies of this type of vehicle.

This condition was further intensified by the weakening of the US economy and the continuous increase of the prices of gasoline. These factors eventually reduced the demands for pickups from car finders who are also having difficult times dealing with the economic downturn.

In order to quell the different speculations surrounding this decision, GM has issued a justification through its spokesman Tom Wickham. Wickham was quoted saying that “strictly to make sure that our inventory remains at the appropriate level, as opposed to producing too many vehicles” (Wickham 2011) referring to the company’s recent announcement.

However, General Motors is optimistic that the surplus supply of their pickup trucks would eventually be distributed and disposed before the year ends. After finding a solution for this particular issue, GM hopes to build its vehicle line-up for the next year.

The company would also be stopping its production for a few weeks to prepare for the production of GM’s next generation of pickups.