GM plans deep plant, job cuts

 General Motors Corp on Monday announced plans to slash plants, hourly workers and dealers and to eliminate its Pontiac brand in an effort to meet government demands for a quicker and deeper restructuring.

The new viability plan was announced as GM filed plans for an exchange of $27.2 billion of bonds with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, warning that it would seek bankruptcy protection if the offer did not receive sufficient interest.

GM said the new plan called for deep cuts by the end of 2010: reducing the number of U.S. plants to 34 from 47, slashing the U.S. hourly workforce by about 21,000 to 40,000 and cutting its dealer network to 3,605 from 6,246.

GM, which last week took $2 billion of emergency U.S. government loans to bring its total to $15.4 billion so far, was told by the Obama administration in late March it had to June 1 to dig deeper and move faster for continued support.

The automaker plans to focus on four core brands in the United States — Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC — and phase out the Pontiac brand by the end of next year.