Read the article....don’t be misled....
These are the parts that jumped out at me, excerpts follow:
Most of the affected factories build cars that won’t be sold in the U.S. after next year, including the Chevrolet Volt rechargeable gas-electric hybrid. They could close or they could get different vehicles to build. Their futures will be part of contract talks with the United Auto Workers union next year.
Those cuts are in addition to $6.5 billion that the company has announced by the end of this year.
GM doesn’t foresee an economic downturn and is making the cuts “to get in front of it while the company is strong and while the economy is strong”...
GM has offered buyouts to 18,000 retirement-eligible workers with a dozen or more years of service. It would not say how many have accepted the buyouts, but it was short of the company’s target because GM said there will be white-collar layoffs.
End excerpts
That level of white collar workers being cut means they have nothing new to invest in.
They have to be cutting engineers - now how much is deadwood, ready for retirement (with potential savings for buying out early), and/or how much is a losss of future investment in the company is the real question.