Parts of the new Mercedes-Benz trucks are seen at a parking lot close to the Mercedes-Benz factory in Sao Bernardo do Campo, Brazil, July 6, 2015. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - The Mercedes-Benz trucks division of Daimler AG in Brazil fired about 500 workers after 1,028 employees chose to participate in a voluntary buyout program ending this week, union leaders said on Tuesday.

The metalworkers’ union of the ABC region, in the industrial outskirts of Sao Paulo, said it would press management not to go through with the layoffs, adding that 638 workers had also volunteered for an earlier buyout program.

Company representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Daimler Trucks Chief Executive Wolfgang Bernhard said in June the company was aiming to cut 2,000 jobs in Brazil.

The decision adds to a wave of layoffs in Brazil’s struggling car industry, which has shed nearly 10,000 jobs in the past year as sales and output cratered during the worst recession since at least the 1930s.