GM, Union Still Mum On Spring Hill Buyouts

The deadline for GM factory workers to take a company-wide buyout has passed, but neither union nor GM officials will say how many will do so at the Spring Hill plant.

Workers there had until May 22 to decide whether to break ties with the company.

GM spokesman Dan Flores doesn’t expect the automaker to release details until mid June.

“There are still a handful of plants across the country that had extended deadlines. So because they are preliminary numbers, we are not disclosing any specific individual facility, including our facility in Spring Hill.”

Despite lacking specific numbers, GM announced last week that more than a quarter of its 74 thousand UAW workers will leave the company by July 1.

Flores says the majority of the departing workers took early retirement. Others accepted the lump sum buyout.

Flores says the company’s move to decrease its workers is a negotiated agreement with the UAW to improve GM’s long-term viability in a difficult marketplace.