Showing posts with label GM plans to close plants and lay off 15000 workers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GM plans to close plants and lay off 15000 workers. Show all posts

Saturday, December 1, 2018

Letters We Wish We'd Written Dept.


In today's WaPo:
The announcement by General Motors to drop car lines, close plants and lay off workers is more than just a signpost of where the economy is going [“GM closing plants, laying off 15,000,” front page, Nov. 27]. 
GM’s decision is rational thinking in the complex world of auto manufacturing. Shareholders reward profits and those companies that respond to market forces. Investors did not see a mistaken bet. In fact, GM’s stock price rose 4.79 percent on the news. 
More important, GM’s decision to drop car lines is just one more example that public-policy choices really matter for the country’s economic future. President Trump rolled back fuel economy standards. He rolled back climate change initiatives. He now has cheap fossil fuels, including at the pump. In foreign policy, he exited the Iran nuclear deal and is making a deal with the devil in Saudi Arabia to get the Saudis to pump more oil to keep prices low. The bottom line to all of Mr. Trump’s policy choices for the auto industry is a cold, wet blanket on demand for sedans. Fuel efficiency as a purchase motive is greatly reduced.  
The bottom line for the economy is that a lot of people will lose their jobs, capital investment will take a hit, and towns in Ohio and Michigan will lose a lot of tax base. Ohio and Michigan just got exactly what they deserve in voting for Mr. Trump: a transactional president, a short-term thinker, leading with an eye on the rear-view mirror, clueless about the far-reaching consequences of public-policy decisions. 
Daniel Keifer, Abington, Pa.
Also: Trump tariffs. A perfect storm.

Monday, November 26, 2018

GM Closing Five Plants, Laying Off 15,000 Workers


So much winning!
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. 
Plants without products include assembly plants in Detroit; Lordstown, Ohio; and Oshawa, Ontario. Also affected are transmission factories in Warren, Michigan, as well as Baltimore. 
About 6,000 factory workers could lose jobs in the U.S. and Canada, although some could transfer to truck plants.
GM says among the "headwinds" facing the company are the tariffs on imported steel imposed by the Trump regime earlier this year.  The steel tariffs have also caused Ford Motor Company last October to look to layoffs, in part to ameliorate the tariffs' negative effects.  A lot of workers trusted Trump's bald- faced lies about saving manufacturing and coal jobs.  Now the reality (assisted by his boneheaded tariffs) is maybe sinking in, albeit two years too late.

Observations: