Strike ends at General Motors plant in Brazil

SAO JOSE DOS CAMPOS, Brazil (Reuters) - Workers at General Motors Co's Brazilian car factory ended a six-day strike on Thursday after the company agreed to drop plans to lay off 800 employees, the union said.

In a compromise deal, GM agreed to furlough 650 workers for five months as of March 9, with a guarantee they will get their jobs back, the local metalworkers' union said in a statement.

Stoppage days will not be deducted from wages and the company vowed not to retaliate against workers who walked off the job in the longest strike GM has faced in Brazil in the last 12 years, the union said.

Workers brought production to a standstill last week to protest GM's proposal to furlough nearly 800 workers for two months before laying them off in April.

The strike in Sao Jose dos Campos, 55 miles (90 km) outside Sao Paulo, was the most recent in a wave of labor disruptions this year in Brazil's slumping auto industry, which trimmed 7 percent of workers last year as output plunged.

GM has cut its payrolls at the factory from about 7,500 workers in 2012 to about 5,200 currently.

(Writing by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Tom Brown)

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