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GM To Idle Five Factories In North America, Cut More Than 14,000 Jobs As It Focuses On Autonomous, Electric Vehicles (chicagotribune.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Chicago Tribune: General Motors will cut up to 14,000 workers in North America and put five plants up for possible closure as it abandons many of its car models and restructures to cut costs and focus more on autonomous and electric vehicles. The reduction includes about 8,000 white-collar employees, or 15 percent of GM's North American white-collar workforce. Some will take buyouts while others will be laid off. Four factories in the U.S. and one in Canada could be shuttered by the end of 2019 if the automaker and its unions don't come up with an agreement to allocate more work to those facilities, GM said in a statement Monday. Another two will close outside North America. The company has marked a sedan plant in Detroit, a compact car plant in Ohio, and another assembly plant outside Toronto for possible closure. Also at risk are two transmission plants, one outside Detroit and another in Baltimore. GM CEO Mary Barra said the company is "still hiring people with expertise in software and electric and autonomous vehicles, and many of those who will lose their jobs are now working on conventional cars with internal combustion engines," reports Dallas News. "Barra said the industry is changing rapidly and moving toward electric propulsion, autonomous vehicles and ride-sharing, and GM must adjust with it."
The restructuring comes as the U.S. and North American auto markets are shifting away from cars toward SUVs and trucks. "In October, almost 65 percent of new vehicles sold in the U.S. were trucks or SUVs," reports Chicago Tribune. "It was about 50 percent cars just five years ago."
The restructuring comes as the U.S. and North American auto markets are shifting away from cars toward SUVs and trucks. "In October, almost 65 percent of new vehicles sold in the U.S. were trucks or SUVs," reports Chicago Tribune. "It was about 50 percent cars just five years ago."
Its due to falling sales. If they were successfully focusing on electric they'd still need production capacity. Note part of their 'focus on electric' involves cancelling the Volt, probably their best selling vehicle with electric as the primary power source.
I blame Trump for many things, but awful GM cars is not one of them. People aren't buying GM cars because they just are simply inferior to other brands. If you have money you buy Euro or Japanese. Those with less money are buying Korean.
Sure man, you lost a whole bunch of employment, you got a whole bunch of political lack of accomplishment(notice how he's not been able to actually made any legislation even get discussed, not even the mythical Trumpcare), and a spiraling debt load because Trump promised that magic would happen with his fairy dust. You know, you just have to clap your hands and believe. Like Trump does when he challenges the Climate Change reports.
But hey, at least he's defending a bunch of murdering thugs, separating children from their families and ordering thousands of soldiers to a useless deployment on the border.
"If you want to talk about spiraling debt, you should have seen it explode during the eight years of 0bama!" -Dishonest Republican problems again?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2018/01/15/obamas-federal-debt-grew-at-a-slower-rate-than-reagan-h-w-bush-or-w-bush/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/12/us/politics/trump-stock-market-national-debt-fact-check.html
https://www.factcheck.org/2017/09/obamas-final-numbers/
GM stock went up 5% after announcing the layoffs.
GM invested millions of dollars into the EV1 program for their electric car in the 90s. They were positioned to be a global leader in EV technology...until those far sighted C-Suite geniuses at GM killed it.
Trump is not to blame for the closures
Trump's moronic trade policy has greatly increased the cost of steel, which has cost GM $1billion. Retaliatory tariffs have also increased the price of cars built in the US. That caused GM close these plants instead of retooling them for more popular cars. Instead, GM's going to build more in Mexico which is not subject to retaliatory tariffs.
So yes, this is on Trump.