At a meeting with workers in Mercedes' Sindelfingen factory today, Dieter Zetsche, head of the Mercedes Car Group, defended the company's plans to lay off 8,500 workers.  In a letter, Zetsche wrote that Mercedes "really did explore all possibilities in recent months, but that we have a long and difficult road ahead until the Mercedes Car Group is really competitive again."

The job cuts, which will take place over the next 12 months, will come via retirement packages, voluntary redundancies and not replacing workers who leave the company. As for who's gettng the ax, most of the job cuts will take place at Mercedes' German plants, with 3,100 coming from the Sindelfingen plant, 2,700 from the Bremen plan, and 1,100 from the Stuttgart-Untertuerkheim plant.  The remaining job cuts will come from marketing and production planning departments...

You can check out the full story over at Forbes.