GM halting production at most plants, cut more than 14,000 jobs - tarrifs
 

Thanks for the steel tarriffs Trump! First Ford now GM.

14,000 jobs GONE

15% of their workforce cut

In addition four plants are completely shutting down in Ohio, Michigan, Maryland, and Ontario.

GM halting production at most plants, cut more than 14,000 jobs

General Motors said Monday it plans to effectively halt production at a number of plants in the U.S. and Canada next year and cut more than 14,000 jobs in a massive restructuring that will cost up to $3.8 billion.

In response, the United Auto Workers vowed to use "every legal, contractual and collective bargaining avenue" to fight the changes.

U.S. President Donald Trump criticized the automaker's decision.

"I am not happy," Trump told reporters on the White House lawn Monday afternoon, speaking of CEO Mary Barra. "You know, the United States saved General Motors. For her to take that company out of Ohio is not good. I think she is going to put something back in soon."

The Detroit automaker said plants in Ohio, Michigan, Maryland, and Ontario will be "unallocated" in 2019 and it will cease operations at two additional plants outside of North America by the end of next year. It will also wind down operations at propulsion plants in White Marsh, Maryland, and Warren, Michigan.

Although the decision effectively shuts down those plants, the company wouldn't say outright that they are closing. Shuttering a plant is a matter of negotiation with the UAW, GM spokeswoman Stephanie Rice said in an email.

"We are announcing the cessation of certain products resulting in a number of plants being without allocated volume to produce," she said.

The company plans to cut 15 percent of its salaried workers, resulting in a 25 percent reduction of its executive ranks, the company said. The cuts will eliminate more than 14,000 jobs in all, roughly 8,100 white collar positions and more than 6,000 factory jobs, according to the company.

GM employed 180,000 people as of Dec. 31 — 77,000 of which were salaried, according to a regulatory filing. About 51,000 employees were represented by labor unions, including the UAW.

"This callous decision by GM to reduce or cease operations in American plants, while opening or increasing production in Mexico and China plants for sales to American consumers, is, in its implementation, profoundly damaging to our American workforce," said Terry Dittes, a UAW vice president who leads negotiations with GM.

The reorganization is estimated to save about $6 billion a year by the end of 2020, the company said. The company previously tried thinning its ranks through buyouts offered to some 18,000 eligible employees in October.

Former GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said the automaker historically would have raised sales incentives to try to sell more cars before resorting to plant closures.

"Nowadays GM looks at the hard reality, says we've got a demand problem on cars, what are we going to do about it. We have to shut some facilities and move production to truck plants," Lutz said on CNBC's "Halftime Report." "So I think what we are seeing is a fast-acting and reality-oriented GM management."

The largest U.S. automaker has invested heavily in crossovers, SUVs and trucks as consumer demand has shifted from traditional passenger cars. It is a move mirrored by decisions at several automakers, perhaps most notably Ford and Fiat-Chrysler. Ford has also said it plans to reduce its salaried workforce, telling investors Oct. 5 it will provide the details to those layoffs by the second quarter of next year.

"The actions we are taking today continue our transformation to be highly agile, resilient and profitable, while giving us the flexibility to invest in the future," Barra said in a statement. "We recognize the need to stay in front of changing market conditions and customer preferences to position our company for long-term success."

Sam Huszczo, who owns SGH Wealth Management outside of Detroit, said many of his financial planning clients at GM told him they believe about 4,000 people with average salaries of around $120,000 already took buyouts offered last month.

About 2,250 people have already taken the voluntary buyouts, not 4,000, said spokeswoman Juli Huston-Rough. She declined to comment on their average salaries.

Trading in GM was briefly halted before the announcement. Its shares jumped as much as 7.8 percent in intraday trading.

Ford is cutting a lot of jobs as well. Also because of tariffs. All this winning is starting to overwhelm me.

Yeah Ford is cutting 20,000 jobs minimum

Ford cutting up to 20,000 salaried jobs, streamlining operations, report says

great, i am going short on Arcelor Mital.
I am winning.

GM and Ford lost the war in the American sedan market.

Ford will be announcing additional layoffs in 2nd quarter 2019

"we've got a demand problem on cars"

Nobody's buying new cars..

I bought my '08 Ram work truck used for $5000 2.5 years ago with cash. I've done nothing but routine maintenance since. Why would I go out and pay $40k for a new one?

how comes ?

booming industry and this huge tax cutt......and and and ... the best economic people in the white house......

did you see what happens do construction and new house sales ????

this is just the very beginning - enjoy it !!!!

don't listen to him he's a complete moron Russian pretending to be American online who makes predictions that never come true, and states as fact blatant lies.

Vehicle sales of major car brands in the United States between October 2017 and October 2018 (in units)**

So much....

https://dta0yqvfnusiq.cloudfront.net...d83ee735a4.jpg

GM warned Trump back in June that his tarriffs will negatively impact of the company over the long term.

June 2018: Trump’s tariffs will lead to a ’smaller GM’, automaker warns

https://business.financialpost.com/t...p-auto-tariffs

“Increased import tariffs could lead to a smaller GM, a reduced presence at home and abroad for this iconic American company, and risk less — not more — U.S. jobs,” GM said in a submission to the U.S. Department of Commerce that was published Friday.

“The penalties we could incur from tariffs and increased costs will be detrimental to the future industrial strength and readiness of manufacturing operations in the United States, and could lead to negative consequences for our company and U.S. economic security.”

:evil-laug:evil-laug:(

The quote was from your own article and if you look at your own graph you see a downward trend of car sales... Trucks are up because construction is up.. I know a few idiots driving around in $70,000 trucks that can barely afford them right now.. But when the housing market comes down, and it already is, those idiots aren't going to be able to make that $1000+ a month truck note. The flood of used repo'ed inventory will oversaturate that market and bring down truck sales as well.

at MOST plants or SOME plants? This is happening across the board?

Of course the Trump people are saying "Trump has nothing to do with this". Bullshit. GM warned about this months ago. Ford is having problems too. Guess who is next....

We handed GM a massive tax cut, it didn't trickle down to the employees, and now thousands are going to lose their jobs due to tariffs.

This is insane.

Because quality is up and people don't feel the need to impress their neighbors with a new car every couple of years.

And, millennials don't drive; they rideshare.

I guess I missed it because I am on my Smartphone. Can you quote the relevant paragraph that blames it on tariffs, please.

no major issue ... Those workers can go work in the coal mines , a booming business !

one hung lo was reporting all this monumental shit...there was this invisible maga...lots of it...

There are a lot of things to cover on this issue and I will say one of those plants is just 30mi away from me.

There is plenty of blame to go around on this.
But I will take a very realistic view that GM is doing what is right for GM in the long term.
It is their job. I don't see any undo greed in their actions. I have a trust for the CEO that they are thinking long term like they have not done that for quite a while. It is a change in their DNA and probably about time and needed. I applaud the thinking while not liking the actions.
They were not a promoter of the tax breaks they got along with all so many others. But, I am sure they made benefit of them.

The plants they are closing are small car plants. Small cars are not selling for them and their profit margins are slimmer on them. A projection they had made incorrectly and it has cost them.
Now, you can put some political blame on why that is if you can sort through that mess if you really want to. It's not hard to make a case of the broader picture.

I am fairly confident that one or two of these plants will be back in a few years when the direction of personal transportation has been better defined and projected in a way that can allow investment again. Although, I suspect the investment continues in tech side of development and we will need to wait to see the how and what that equates to.
We may be looking at fuel cells and electrics. Or even CNG powered vehicles. Or a sprinkle of many of the above.

Lets stay focused.......

With the government's decision to sell the last of its General Motors shares, it is worth taking a look back at the process as it went on over five years. Here are key dates:

Dec. 19, 2008. The Bush Administration announces plans to bail out Detroit's auto industry, notably General Motors and Chrysler Group.

Dec. 31, 2008. GM receives $13.4 billion in short-term financing through the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

April 22, 2009. The Obama Administration provided $2 billion working capital loan to GM.

May 20, 2009. Another $4 billion is added to the loan.

June 1, 2009. GM files for bankruptcy reorganization. In bankruptcy, it cuts costs and sheds such well-known brands as Saturn, Hummer and Saab.

June 3, 2009, in conjunction with the bankruptcy filing, the Obama Administration provides a $30.1 billion debtor-in-possession loan.

June 8, 2009. GM kicked off the list of 30 companies comprising the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

July 10, 2009. GM exits bankruptcy.

April 20, 2010. GM makes its final loan repayment. Government holds a 61% stake in common and preferred stock.

Nov. 18, 2010. General Motors becomes a public company again. U.S. Treasury reaps $13.5 billion in conjunction
with the new company's IPO, reducing its stake to 33%.

Dec. 15, 2010. GM repurchases all of Treasury's preferred stock

Dec. 21, 2012. GM repurchases 200 million shares of common stock from Treasury, which announces
it will sell all of its GM shares over up to 15 months on the open market.

Dec. 9, 2013. The last of four stock sales is completed. The government has no remaining GM shares.

Source: U.S. Treasury, USA TODAY research

ok, and the point is .... ??????

Trickle down economics doesn't work. The politicians embracing the idea of trickle down economics aren't limited to the United States, we have them here in Australia too.

Yeah trickle down economics doesn't work when the one at the top is a greedy motherfucker, and unfortunately nowadays pretty much all of them are.

Sen. Sherrod Brown said he asked Chump to intervene with GM this summer after they laid off workers and planned to lay off more. He said Chump said and did nothing because he must have been intimidated by their CEO(a woman CEO). They could have took some of that tax money and retooled the plant!


Last year, Trump — speaking about 20 miles away in Youngstown — said he saw too many empty factories in the area and promised to revive manufacturing there.

"I said, those jobs have left Ohio. They're all coming back. They're all coming back. Don't move, don't sell your house," he said at a rally in July 2017, according to The Columbus Dispatch.

I know that my grown kids both bought used cars for their first car out of college, and they also rideshare quite a bit to keep miles off of their cars. So yes I can see that millennials will be a harder sell on upgrading and buying new cars every 4 to 6 years like our generation was. Which will hurt the market economy that we've built up that requires consumerism to continue in order for it to thrive.

GM is going to concentrate on driverless and electric cars.

My kids didn't buy their first cars until after college; I got my first car in high school.

Times are changing; not Trump's fault.

I got my kid a convertible mustang for his 18th birthday. He drives everywhere. Kids in the OC drive everywhere. The girls love it, a real pussy magnet :thumbsup

Insanity is Right, We bailed GM out in Canada, this is the repayment ! :mad:

If you do not allow them to restructure themselves for the future, you might be doing it again.
Or would you prefer Toyota buy them for 20 cents on the dollar and close the same plants anyway.

Something to think about.

This has more to do with our energy policy than anything. Or the lack of a coherent one anyway.

If capitalism was a real thing GM should have been dead in 2008.

This never works. Taxes goes up and taxes go down. When taxes go down I don't pay people more. We give out Christmas bonuses, but these do not depend on taxes.

Large companies have teams of accountants who decide what to do with that money. And trust me, they will make their decisions on how they can use that money while avoiding paying yet more taxes.

When ever I discuss such topics on GFY I think of Minte who used to post here. He claimed her started in the mail room and worked his way up to CEO without mentioning the fact that his father owned the company. He was also the guy who swore it was a bad business environment under Obama while expanding his business in a huge way, including a $200k fountain (which he promptly wrote off his taxes). I am guessing Minte does tens of millions of dollars in sales each year, and I am sure he got a huge kick back from taxes. Do you think he gave everyone on his janitorial staff a $20k bonus, or do you think he bought himself a few new exotic sports cars or a new vacation home.

Sad, but very few people buy sedan "cars" anymore - especially GM stuff. I am guilty. Even the Volt and efficient Cruze are dead. These closures are directly related to these vehicles. Ford already dropped their sedans. Gotta retool and focus on trucks, SUVs, minivans, crossovers, etc - at least for now. The tariffs hurt short-term but should even out eventually.

Idiot Trump supporters blaming "the market" for more job losses due to the tariffs, despite being warned by GM 6 months ago that this could happen if Trump tariffs continued.

You are forgetting the banks would have been gone which is why they were sinking in the first lace. GM & Chrysler could not get a loan to re-tool for the next year. Ford had obtained their loan before the bank collapse.

And if the banks were gone, so would be your income.
Can you trade what you do for food, water and shelter ?

Point is I see nobody applying the same logic to the banks !

The banks should have failed also. Life would go on.
QE biggest theft in the history of man.

Sounds like we can count on your support to break them up !

But you can't blame GM for looking out for their best interest in a long term basis so no future 'bail-out' is needed. They are breaking no promises. We didn't penalize the banks and nobody went to jail and they did break more than promises.

But I'm sure the new model electric's that will likely be built overseas is a simple matter of supply economics made worse by tariffs and the banks cornering commodities like copper and aluminum. But I think GM is just taking a pause to see what the next election brings in stability of the economics of material supply.

So, the final decision is up in the air for now. I doubt they want to say what they 'might do'

Just a thought. If better trade deals or tariffs had been in place with China and Japan over the last 30 years do you think companies like gm and Ford might be in a better position than they are now?

Just a thought. Don't go 30 years in history to divert blame from the direct results of Trump's steel tariffs on the auto industry, farmers, or electronics industry the past year.