Sluggish Sales Put Brakes on GM’s Effort to Slash Labor Costs

DETROIT – A sluggish U.S. light-vehicle market is slowing General Motors Corp.’s efforts to hire cheaper hourly labor at its U.S. manufacturing plants, a crucial element of the auto maker’s restructuring plan.

Gary Cowger, group vice president-manufacturing and labor relations, tells Ward’s the auto maker has hired about 2,000 people into the lower wage rate of its new 2-tier pay scale in the ...