GM News: GM Laying Off 2,000 Workers At Two Plants

[William Maley]

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As sales of compacts and sport cars begin declining, automakers are faced with tough decisions as to what in terms of production and workers. General Motors made the difficult decision to lay off 2,000 workers at two plants.

Bloomberg reports that GM will be cutting the third shift at their Lansing Grand River plant in Michigan (home to Cadillac ATS, CTS, and Chevrolet Camaro) and a shift at Lordstown, Ohio plant (home to the Chevrolet Cruze). GM spokesman Tom Wickham said the company is treating the layoffs as permanent, although some workers will be able to transfer to other plants.

The layoffs are due to sales of compact and sports cars going down due to consumers buying more crossovers. Sales of the Chevrolet Cruze dropped 20 percent through October, while the Camaro has seen a drop of 9 percent.

On the same day, General Motors announced a $900 million investment for three plants - Toledo Transmission Operations, Bedford Casting Operations in Indiana, and Lansing Grand River. Wickham said this investment would not add any new jobs.

Source: Bloomberg, General Motors
Press Release is on Page 2

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General Motors today announced initiatives to strengthen and align its production output at key U.S. manufacturing operations. The plans include investing more than $900 million in three facilities — Toledo Transmission Operations in Ohio, Lansing Grand River in Michigan and Bedford Casting Operations in Indiana —  to prepare the facilities for future product programs.

GM also announced plans to align production output with demand for cars built at the Lordstown, Ohio, and Lansing Grand River, Michigan, assembly plants. As the customer shift from cars to crossovers and trucks is projected to continue, GM will suspend the third shift of production at both facilities in the first quarter of 2017. 

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[G. David Felt]

The nature of the beast especially when it is the third shift.

I am very happy to see the investments to keep things moving forward by GM.

Plus we have as I reported in the Chevy thread the increase in production for the BOLT. Good news to the sad but expected reduction in head count for less desirable products.

[regfootball]

CTS ATS and Camaro are not core products.  Good to keep production of those in line.

[hyperv6]

Well there are other things in play too.

#1 GM is no longer just dumping cars on fleets. Other makers are also feeling the decline but many are dumping them on fleets.

#2 GM no longer has to keep building cars to keep people working as there are generally less UAW contracts paying lots of money to idled workers like it used to.

#3 Gas prices are always subject to change.

#4 GM has raised profits with better ATP and lower cost in anticipation of the coming decline in the market. So profits are still coming in and retail sales increased even on some of these cars with only a loss of fleet sales.

GM is also far from the only one slowing and shutting lines. The media has really been misleading on the web on several sites.

 

[daves87rs]

A few comments I'll add:

 

#1  3rd shift was not going to last, even the workers should have known that. The only way they were going to last is if they were replacing retiring workers (like my dad). Even then there is still going to be cuts at plants like D-Ham in the near future as well....

# 2 I expect the cars mentioned above to continue to decline, as the CUV/SUV is making a nice comeback....

# 3 Due to some forethought by GM, I expect the Cruze to lose some money for a while. On top of the fact that sales are down, back in July GM thought it would be a good idea to bring up some production up from the AP plant in Mexico to help out. Well, guess what-they are now here on top of the Cruzes not selling, and more are still on the way. So, there will be a Glut of them for a little while. While it's not going to really hurt them, they are going to have to put some money on the hood to move them. This, on top of the hatches also on the way from Mexico....

 

Now # 3 might change my mind about getting a Nox/Escape if the price ends up right, as I do like the Cruze, but not the price......

[SoCalCTS]

Maybe they can move ATS, CTS and Camaro production to Mexico or China to make them more profitable or at least offer better incentives.

[Guest Wings4Life(BANNED)]

2 hours ago, SoCalCTS said:

Maybe they can move ATS, CTS and Camaro production to Mexico or China to make them more profitable or at least offer better incentives.

If Trump has his way, he will make it less profitable to do so.

[SoCalCTS]

Since Trump won theres no reason to support the rust belt. Maybe Canada would be a better place to move the ATS and Camaro.

[G. David Felt]

1 minute ago, SoCalCTS said:

Since Trump won theres no reason to support the rust belt. Maybe Canada would be a better place to move the ATS and Camaro.

I hear Venezuela would love some manufacturing jobs!

[Drew Dowdell]

25 minutes ago, SoCalCTS said:

Since Trump won theres no reason to support the rust belt. Maybe Canada would be a better place to move the ATS and Camaro.

oshawa has the room

[A Horse With No Name]

27 minutes ago, Drew Dowdell said:

Oshawa has the room

Would not bother me in the least, actually.

54 minutes ago, SoCalCTS said:

Since Trump won there's no reason to support the rust belt. Maybe Canada would be a better place to move the ATS and Camaro.

Agreed....

53 minutes ago, dfelt said:

I hear Venezuela would love some manufacturing jobs!

Lots of places would, i think.  Given our current course of action,everything will wind up in sub Saharan Africa as everyone races to the bottom of the barrel.