• USA Today, Thursday, April 23, 2009 11 AM

General Motors plans to essentially quit making cars and trucks in North America for nine weeks from mid-May through July, Sharon Silke Carty and James R. Healey report. Sources say the company will shut 15 of GM's 21 car and truck assembly plants, most of them in the U.S.

The company hopes to cut costs and shrink a glut of unsold vehicles at dealers. "They just plan to shut down and come back up with the next model-year (2010) vehicles," says Stephen Spivey, senior auto analyst at Frost & Sullivan.

GM will meet with United Auto Workers leaders today and Friday to work out details. "There could be failures in lots of different industries as a result of this," warns Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. "One lost job at GM can result in up to 10 lost jobs elsewhere."

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