Brazil auto workers, GM fail to agree on job cuts

Brazilian auto workers on Friday failed to talk General Motors out of cutting 1,598 jobs as the two sides agreed to meet again next week, the union said. The two sides opened the talks earlier in the day after a two-hour morning stoppage by around 4,000 employees at the GM facility in Sao Jose dos Campos, 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Sao Paulo. A union statement accused GM of continued intransigence at the meeting in Sao Jose dos Campos, which was also attended by representatives of the labor and development ministry. GM's Brazil unit could not immediately be reached for comment. The union said a new round of talks was scheduled for next Wednesday and would coincide with a day of global action against GM in six countries: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Spain, Germany and the United States. It also called for a meeting with President Dilma Rousseff to urge her to stop the planned layoffs at a struggling production line at the GM complex, which has eight plants and employs 7,500 workers. "We want President Dilma (Rousseff) to meet with GM workers next week. The president must bar GM, which receives public money, from carrying out mass layoffs," union president Antonio Ferreira de Barros said in a statement. "GM is doing well and does not need to cut jobs. We are going to continue fighting with all our might to save the workers' jobs," he added. Last August, GM and the union reached a deal to delay the layoffs until January 26. The union has estimated that the layoffs would translate into a total loss of around 15,000 jobs in Sao Jose dos Campos.