The Republic Staff and Wire Reports
Honda Motor Co. is offering voluntary buyouts, cutting workers' pay and imposing 13 non-production days at most North American plants to reduce its output this summer by 62,000 vehicles.
Workers at most North American plants - but not the Greensburg plant - will be required to take two days off unpaid per month, said Honda spokesman Andrew Stoner. Employees can use vacation days for those days.
Employees at the Greensburg plant can take unpaid days if they want to - but they do not have to.
Stoner said that the Honda plant's situation differs somewhat from most others because it is still developing its production capabilities.
Honda spokesman Ron Lietzke said Tuesday that the buyouts will be offered at most of the Japanese automaker's facilities in the North America, where it employs 35,600 people. Sweetened retirement packages are also being offered, he said.
Stoner said employees at the Greensburg plant will not offered those packages.
Overall compensation will be reduced for North American employees, with top executives experiencing the biggest cuts, Lietzke said. He would not say how much salaries would be reduced.
Bonuses will be greatly reduced or eliminated at the plants, including Greensburg, but pay rates for production and hourly workers will not be affected, Lietzke said.
"There is a continuing need to reduce our inventory," Lietzke said. "Regardless of job title or level within our organization, each Honda associate will share the responsibility of doing what we must do to remain competitive."
The Greensburg plant makes Honda Civics, and soon is scheduled to produce a natural gaspowered Civic, Stoner said.
The Tokyo-based automaker has been cutting auto production aggressively in North America in recent months in an attempt to lower inventories of unsold cars. In December, it said it was removing 119,000 vehicles from production for the fiscal year ending Tuesday and it cut production even further in January.
Spokesman Edward Miller said the company produced about 1.3 million vehicles in North America during the 2008 fiscal year. Miller declined to provide a production or sales target for fiscal 2009.
Honda has not been immune to the troubles plaguing the broader auto industry, brought on by the downturn in consumer confidence and the lockup in the credit markets. The automaker's U.S. sales are down by about a third for the first two months of the year.
In February, Honda announced it was replacing its chief executive and reshuffling its board of directors.
Still, the company is faring better than its Detroit-based counterparts and is counting on interest in its smaller, fuel-efficient vehicles to propel a rebound. Earlier this year, Honda unveiled its new Insight hybrid, which will be priced under $20,000 when it arrives in the U.S. in the coming weeks and is expected to compete head-on with rival Toyota Motor Corp.'s Prius.
U.S.-traded shares of Honda rose 31 cents on Tuesday to close at $23.70.