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ANOTHER TRUMP MAGA FAILURE! GM poised to close plants in Michigan, Ohio, Maryland, will cut 15% of salaried workers

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GM poised to close plants in Michigan, Ohio, Maryland, will cut 15% of 
salaried workers
Nathan Bomey, USA TODAY Published 10:34 a.m. ET Nov. 26, 2018 | Updated 
3:57 p.m. ET Nov. 26, 2018

General Motors will close three assembly plants by the end of 2019, and lay 
off up to 5,600 workers. USA TODAY, USA TODAY

b
General Motors is poised to end production at five plants in the U.S. and 
Canada, kill off several passenger cars – including the Chevrolet Impala – 
and slash 15 percent of its salaried workforce in a sweeping cost-cutting 
plan designed to boost profits and adjust to America's changing tastes in 
vehicles.

The Detroit-based automaker said it would end production by the end of 2019 
at its Lordstown Assembly plant in northeast Ohio, its Detroit-Hamtramck 
Assembly plant in southeast Michigan, its Oshawa Assembly plant in Ontario, 
its Baltimore Operations parts plant in Maryland and its Warren 
Transmission Operations plant in southeast Michigan.

The moves reflect the stark consumer shift to SUVs, crossovers and pickups. 
All of the GM plants on the chopping block make passenger cars.

The company will also discontinue the Chevrolet Cruze and Volt in North 
America as well as the Buick LaCrosse, Cadillac XTS and Cadillac CT6.

While sales of those models were suffering, they continued to support 
thousands of jobs. GM has about 1,500 employees at the Detroit plant, 1,600 
at the Lordstown factory and 2,500 in Oshawa.


About half of those workers will be given the chance to relocate to another 
GM operation, the company said.

The announcement comes ahead of next year's contract talks with the United 
Auto Workers union, which could potentially lead to decisions to devote 
vehicles to those facilities.

The union vowed to fight the plan, but there's a serious chance that the 
plants will close for good.

More: GM to kill Chevrolet Volt, Cruze, Impala as Americans ditch passenger 
cars

More: GM offers buyouts to 18,000 salaried workers, says layoffs possible

CEO Mary Barra is seeking to reposition GM for a future defined by self-
driving cars, ride-sharing networks and electric vehicles.
 
Olds Motor Works was founded in 1897, the same year it created the first 
Oldsmobile. General Motors was incorporated in 1908 and Oldsmobile became a 
part of GM. Here's a look back at the history of General Motors and its 
many iconic vehicles. General Motors
The cuts will make GM "lean and agile" as the company aims to "lead in 
autonomous and lead in electric vehicles," Barra said.

The poilitical backlash against GM was swift and intense. President Donald 
Trump said he was "very tough" on Barra in a one-on-one conversation about 
the decision.

"This country has done a lot for General Motors," Trump said as he departed 
the White House for a series of campaign events in Mississippi. "They 
better get back to Ohio and soon. So we have a lot of pressure on them."

Meanwhile, fans of fuel-efficient vehicles were dismayed at the loss of 
several smaller cars and the semielectric Volt.

 The automaker trumpeted the Volt for years as a symbol of its alternative 
propulsion expertise, but the company has since pivoted toward building 
fully battery-powered cars, such as the Chevy Bolt. The Volt, whose 
production model debuted about 10 years ago, still had a small gas engine 
paired with its battery pack.

Like the Volt, the Cruze was also described for years as an illustration of 
GM's recovery after its federal bailout and bankruptcy. GM's decision to 
locate Cruze production in Ohio breathed new life into the Lordstown plant 
and was hailed by President Barack Obama's administration as reflective of 
the auto industry's revival.

GM isn't getting rid of all of its passenger cars. It's keeping models such 
as the Chevy Malibu, Chevy Bolt, Cadillac CTS and Buick Regal.

GM deserves credit for "taking bold action" but risks losing in the long 
run if consumers rediscover passenger cars, said Mike Ramsey, a 
transportation and mobility analyst for Gartner.

"There’s no guarantee that it’s going to stay SUV, SUV, SUV, SUV," Ramsey 
said. "There may be a big return to sedans. So it could be problematic for 
them."

Taken together, the moves will deliver more than $6 billion in additional 
annual cash flow by the end of 2020, GM said. That includes $4 billion in 
cost cuts and $1.5 billion in reduced capital expenditures.

The UAW said it would "confront this decision by GM through every legal, 
contractual and collective bargaining avenue open to our membership."

It's a "callous decision" to cut American operations about 10 years after 
the automaker first accepted federal bailout money, UAW GM official Terry 
Dittes said in a statement.

“GM’s production decisions, in light of employee concessions during the 
economic downturn and a taxpayer bailout from bankruptcy, puts profits 
before the working families of this country whose personal sacrifices stood 
with GM during those dark days," Dittes said. "These decisions are a slap 
in the face to the memory and recall of that historical American made 
bailout.”

GM said it would also close two additional plants outside of North America 
by the end of 2019. It will also continue with plans to close its plant in 
Gunsan, South Korea.

The workforce reduction will affect 15 percent of the company's salaried 
and salaried contract workforce. It's not clear how many of those cuts will 
be voluntary and how many will take the form of layoffs. GM offered buyouts 
to 18,000 workers several weeks ago.

GM has 54,000 salaried workers in North America, meaning the company will 
cut about 8,000 of those positions, GM spokesman Pat Morrissey said. 

While Morrissey declined to specify how many workers agreed to take the 
buyout offer, he said, "We did not get all 8,000 of that reduction through 
voluntary buyouts." 

GM is expected to do involuntary cuts "sometime in January," he said. 

The company said it would also have 25 percent fewer executives.

Contributing: Detroit Free Press reporter Jamie Lareau, USA TODAY reporter 
John Fritze

Follow USA TODAY reporter Nathan Bomey on Twitter @NathanBomey.

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ANOTHER TRUMP MAGA FAILURE!  GM poised to close plants in Michigan, Ohio, Maryland, will cut 15% of salaried workers Eddie Haskell <gdgd@sqpjf.com> - 2018-11-26 23:09 +0000

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