DETROIT, Michigan, Aug 12 (AFP) - General Motors Corp. said Thursday it is cutting back production of its Saturn Ion and may eliminate some positions at the Tennessee plant that manufactures the small car.
Sales of the Ion have been sliding, and were off almost 10 percent in the first seven months of this year from the same period in 2003, according to Autodata Corp. of New Jersey.
The automaker plans to reduce the number of crews working on the Ion production line at its Spring Hill, Tennessee, plant by one in early September, GM spokeswoman Sue Rehmus said Thursday.
The cut will affect up to 400 employees. Most of them will be reassigned, but some may be offered incentives to take early retirement, Rehmus said.
The details of those severance packages have not been worked out yet.
The Spring Hill facility employs about 5,600 hourly workers and manufactures the Saturn Vue sport utility in addition to the Saturn Ion coupe and sedan.
Separately, General Motors is providing all of its 40,000 white-collar employees with the opportunity to buy extra holiday days under a fledgling cost-saving program.
Under the program, salaried employees can buy up to five extra holiday days a year for 175 dollars a day.
In 2003 -- the first year of the program -- 11 percent of the eligible employees took advantage of the offer, with more than half of them opting to shell out for an additional week of free time.
The offer was especially popular with GM staff who have been with the company for less than five years and consequently only qualify for two weeks of paid holiday annually.
GM could reportedly save 34.4 million dollars if every eligible employee took full advantage of the offer.