DETROIT (AP) — General Motors will lay off 14,700 factory and white-collar workers in North America and put five plants up for possible closure as it restructures to cut costs and focus more on autonomous and electric vehicles.
The reduction includes 8,100 white-collar workers, some of whom will take buyouts and others who will be laid off. Most of the affected factories build cars that won’t be sold in the U.S. after next year. They could close or they could get different vehicles to build. They will be part of contract talks with the United Auto Workers union next year.
The salaried reductions amount to 15 percent of GM’s North American workforce out of 54,000. At the factories, 3,000 workers could lose jobs in Canada and another 3,600 in the U.S. Some U.S. workers would transfer to truck and SUV plants where GM is increasing output, the company said.
GM, the largest automaker in the U.S. and includes the Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and GMC brands, said the moves will save $6 billion in cash by the end of next year, including $4.5 billion in recurring annual cost reductions and a $1.5 billion reduction in capital spending.
Those cuts are in addition to $6.5 billion that the company has announced by the end of this year.
GM doesn’t foresee an economic downturn and is making the cuts “to get in front of it while the company is strong and while the economy is strong,” CEO Mary Barra told reporters.
Barra said GM 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.
Barra said the industry is changing rapidly and moving toward electric propulsion, autonomous vehicles and ride-sharing, and GM must adjust with it.
The company, she said, has invested in newer architectures for trucks and SUVs so it can cut capital spending while still raising investment in autonomous and electric vehicles.
GM has offered buyouts to 18,000 retirement-eligible workers with a dozen or more years of service. It would not say how many have accepted the buyouts, but it was short of the company’s target because GM said there will be white-collar layoffs.
The company expects to take a pretax charge of $3 billion to $3.8 billion due to the actions, including up to $1.8 billion of asset write downs and pension charges. The charges will take place in the fourth quarter of 2018 and the first quarter of next year.
The factories up for closure are part of GM’s effort “to right-size our capacity for the realities of the marketplace,” as consumers shift away from cars to trucks and SUVs, Barra said.
Among the possibilities are the Detroit/Hamtramck assembly plant, which makes the Buick LaCrosse, Chevrolet Volt, Cadillac CT6 and Chevrolet Impala, all slow-selling cars. LaCrosse and Volt production will end March 1, while CT6 and Impala production would stop June 1.
The plant in Lordstown, Ohio, which makes the Chevrolet Cruze compact car also is on the list, and Barra said the Cruze would no longer be sold in the U.S. Production would stop March 1.
Work on six-speed transmissions made at the Warren, Michigan, transmission plant would stop Aug. 1, while the Baltimore transmission plant would stop production April 1, GM said.
Meanwhile, GM’s plant in Oshawa, Ontario, will stop making the Impala, Cadillac XTS and 2018 full-size pickups in the fourth quarter of next year.
Barra said tariffs on imported aluminum and steel have hit the company, but she stopped short of saying they had anything to do with the restructuring.
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/official-gm-close-ontario-plant-054923778.html
“GM doesn’t foresee an economic downturn and is making the cuts “to get in front of it while the company is strong and while the economy is strong,” CEO Mary Barra told reporters.”
This sentence is a contradiction. They don’t foresee a downturn but they are getting in front of it…
This country IS in an economic downturn, and GM knows it.
all auto companies are doing this .. because their shit isnt selling
I have a good friend that is a Chevy Sales Rep..he tells me he isnt selling anything ..all are leases , not many are buying anything he calls the deals “lease crack”
who’s got 52 grand for a LT silverado?
2 year 25 K a year mileage lease for that truck is 1400$ down and 1,134 a month !
if you buy the truck ( Finance it) its zero down 72 month loan at the tune of $850-$890 a month!
add in your insurance ,,whos got that for a vehicle that depreciates so fast its hardly worth 1/2 of what you paid for it 2 years later
cars are the worst debt you could ever fiance ..EVER!
and with the current pricing at ridiculous rates , thats why nothing is selling
sure they want to shed the car lines because they say everyone wants SUV’s so were going to just build SUV’s..thats not the reason..the reason is profitability is higher with the SUV market ..so they are going to push 90% of every car Buyer( lessor) into an SUV
its not going to solve the problem they created
plus anyone whos awake would really be Leary about owning a new car that does nothing but narc you out , as you pay huge $$
Every time I see a headline like this it stabs me in the stomach. One more indicator that we are targeted to be at third-world status. And our level of excellence is thwarted, because we DO know how to make cars!! But like EOTS pointed, the economic noose is always dangling. I hope the Trump-heads are eating crow, considering what he said about bringing the manufacturing base back home. LIAR!!
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They went after VW as their diesels were the best thing going in North America…I mean, what American car can get 55miles per gallon and not break down every month or handle like a log truck?
The b.s.spilled over to Porsche, Audi,and jeep…anything they can do to kill the competition….and it didn’t help them. The American cars still suck. They’re still ridiculously expensive.
Perhaps, this is the catalyst to END vehicle production, getting ready for the 2030 agenda…stacked and packed using only mass transit in the zones marked for humans.
You might be on to something Bud
Next is perfecting the electric car, than perfecting the driverless car , than it’s on to who can own such cars
Because no one will be able to afford them
Forcing people to move to cities and heavily populated areas for mass Transite systems
Than comes the hard squeeze now that they’ll have 80% of the population right where they can control them , than comes the full on in your face tyranny like you ain’t never seen
This is quite presumptuous of me, but for your synopsis I’d like to give you one of Mary’s, “BAM!”
BAM away, Bud….EOTS is spot on
14,700 jobs.
Man. .. you people had worried for a moment.
Because if it was 14,701 jobs…
I would be concerned.
But I have to look at the brightside.
It could be worse …
There could be 14,700 unemployed GM workers in a caravan in Tijuana trying to cross into Mexico.