GM drops more contract workers.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

General Motors Corp. chopped about 600 more Michigan contract workers Friday, above the 2,200 such workers _ mostly involved in testing, designing and engineering _ already quietly eliminated in the Detroit area this year.

Another 2,000 contract jobs could also be gone by the end of the year at the Warren Technical Center, Milford Proving Ground and the Pontiac Centerpointe Campus near GM's truck assembly plant, confirmed a GM official who did not want to be identified.

The eliminated jobs are tied to a January move by the world's largest automaker to merge car and truck engineering operations. That move ``streamlined engineering and testing and resulted in a need for far fewer people,'' said GM spokeswoman Katie McBride.

Most of the contract workers eliminated were hired through large temporary-employment firms such as Kelly Services Inc. and The Bartech Group as part of an initiative announced last November by chief executive officer Rick Wagoner to cut 10 percent of GM's salaried work force.

Making the cuts is especially painful for contract employees because, unlike auto workers belonging to the United Auto Workers or full-time white-collar roles, they typically don't receive severance packages or any other pay and benefits from GM.

The contract job cuts, while expected by some workers, were apparently a surprise.

``We thought something might be coming, but found out only Wednesday and now we're gone,'' said one technician from Pontiac, Mich., who asked not to be identified for fear of angering his employer.