Honda offering buyouts, cutting pay, production in North America
Last Updated: Tuesday, March 31, 2009 | 7:55 PM ET
CBC News
Honda Motor Co. is offering voluntary buyouts, cutting workers' pay and imposing 13 non-production days at its North American plants to reduce its production this summer by 62,000 vehicles.
Honda spokesman Ron Lietzke said Tuesday that the buyouts will be offered to most of the Japanese automaker's 35,600 employees in the United States, Canada and Mexico. He says enhanced retirement packages are also being offered.
In Canada, Honda has two assembly plants and an engine plant in Alliston, Ont., and employs more than 21,000 people in manufacturing, sales and dealerships.
Lietzke says overall compensation will be reduced for its North American employees, with top executives experiencing the biggest cuts. He wouldn't say how much salaries would be reduced.
Honda builds Accords and Acuras in Marysville, Ohio, near Columbus, and makes Civics and Elements at a factory in East Liberty, Ohio. The company also has an auto plant in Alabama, and it makes parts in Georgia.
In September 2008, Honda opened a new engine plant in Alliston to supply engines for the Civic model.
Production of the Ridgeline model ended in Alliston last November, with the work shifted to the company's Alabama plant.
Honda announced on Jan. 29 that it was scaling back production in Alliston, with plans to turn out 9,000 fewer vehicles through to the end of March.
One assembly line went from two daily work shifts to one, with output of the Civic and Acura models cut in half to 400 units a day.
With files from the Associated PressShare Tools
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