By Brett Wallace, Chronicle-Tribune
bwallace@chronicle-tribune.com
It's unclear if or how General Motors' announcement Monday that it will lay off an additional 1,900 factory workers will affect the Marion stamping plant.

After announcing Friday it would reduce its work force by 3,600 early in 2009, the company submitted a new filing Monday to the Securities and Exchange Commission that it would add almost 2,000 workers to that total.

GM spokeswoman Alicia Kocher said the company has not indicated from which facilities or product lines the workers will be eliminated except that they will come from GM's 26 powertrain and 22 stamping plants in North America.

"(GM) has not released that information," she said.
The layoffs will be "indefinite," according to the SEC filing.

Spokesman Chris Lee said that term means the layoffs will be driven by market conditions and done in accordance to the company's contract with the United Autoworkers.

He said the company sometimes has "down" weeks, halting production either to reduce labor costs or to ease dealer inventory. This would be similar to those situations and will be taken on a week-to-week basis, Lee said.

"We certainly hope (the layoffs) are not indefinite and the market rebounds, but we don't know," he said. "We're not going to speculate, because anything we said would be just that: speculation."

Kocher reinforced that philosophy.

"(GM) doesn't know how long (the layoffs) will last," she said. "It depends on the economy."

Calls to local UAW leaders were not returned.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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