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UPDATED 2:55 p.m. with additional information throughout

General Motors Corp. is cutting one of two production shifts at its Wentzville plant in Aug. 10, indefinitely laying off nearly 900 workers.

About 785 production workers and 102 skilled trades workers — about half of the plant — will be laid off. Their last day of work will be Friday, Aug. 7, said Chris Lee, a GM spokesman.

The Wentzville location is the only facility that makes GM’s full-size commercial, passenger and conversion vans, the GMC Savana and Chevrolet Express. GM’s full-size vans account for 40 percent of the full-size van market. But orders for these vehicles have slipped, and GM’s Lee said the shift cut is a way to align supply with demand. For now, there is no recall date for workers.

"While we certainly hope the market rebounds for the vans, we are not in a position to predict what the market will do," he said.

A week ago today, GM filed for bankruptcy protection and identified 14 plants it planned to close. Wentzville’s operation was not one of them. Wentzville Mayor Paul Lambi said he thinks GM did everything they could to keep two shifts going at the plant, one of the city’s largest employers.

"There was an awful lot of celebration and joy when we got the news that we kept the plant," Lambi said today. "The fact they are keeping it open means they believe they will have two shifts again in the future. Hopefully, this doesn’t last more than a couple months."

The Wentzville operation already was scheduled for a temporary production starting this week and lasting until July 27. That production shutdown still will happen. Only workers on the first shift, the morning production shift, will return on July 27 to work, but both the first and second shifts will return to work for the week of Aug. 3, Lee said. The last day for the second-shift workers is that Friday.

GM had planned to slow the production speed at the plant during the production shutdown in June and July, but those plans have been "overruled" by a decision to cut one production shift, Lee said. The plant will continue to produce 38 vehicles per hour.

Like the rest of the auto market, sales in the full-size van segment have taken a hit. U.S. sales for this niche group - the Express, Savana, Ford E-series and Dodge Sprinter - declined 24 percent last year to 248,619 vehicles, according to J payday loan.D. Power and Associates Forecasting.

From January through May, U.S. sales of the Express and Savana combined fell to about 27,600 vehicles, down 37 percent from the same time in 2008.

"This will mark the first time the Wentzville plant has gone to one shift since we started building vans, and it will be a hardship for many of our members both laid off and working," UAW Local 2250, which represents the Wentzville plant’s hourly workers, said in a statement today. "We are hopeful that sales will rebound with the overall economy in the second half of the year and look forward to calling back all of our members."

Automakers and analysts consider a one-shift plant to be financially inefficient. However, GM’s Lee said the move to one shift does "not necessarily" make Wentzville more vulnerable to a permanent closure.

"All of our actions are based on market demand, which can go up and down," he said.

GM employs more than 1,800 hourly and salaried workers at the location. In the past few months, analysts have said that product lineup has saved the plant from major cuts or closure.

It’s unclear whether this announcement will spur more interest in GM’s latest round of retirement and voluntary separation incentives. Workers can sign up for one of the offers starting tomorrow, and the sign-up period continues through July 24.

"I’m not going to speculate on what effect that (shift cut) may or may not have," on the sign-up numbers, GM’s Lee said.

The separation incentives are sweeter than GM’s last offer, but for the most part, the retirement and separation offers are less than ones extended to Chrysler workers. Here are GM’s packages:

- Production workers eligible for retirement - $20,000 and a $25,000 new-vehicle voucher. Skilled trades workers - $45,000 and a $25,000 vehicle voucher.

- Separation packages include $45,000 and a $25,000 vehicle voucher for workers with less than 10 years of service, to $115,000 and a $25,000 vehicle voucher for those with at least 20 years.

- GM also is offering pre-retirement and other retirement options.

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