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posted by janrinok on Thursday April 19 2018, @03:28AM   Printer-friendly
from the continuing-downward-spiral-for-workers dept.

The World Socialist Web Site reports:

In spite of a continuous chorus in the media of a booming economy creating robust job numbers, General Motors is unleashing a new round of attacks on autoworkers in North America as part of a global cost-cutting offensive against the working class.

The corporation announced on [April 13] it will cut one of two operating shifts at its massive Lordstown, Ohio, assembly plant, cutting as many as 1,500 jobs effective June 15. As recently as 2016, the plant was operating three shifts around the clock with nearly 4,000 workers. By the end of June only 1,500 will remain.

As sales for the compact Chevy Cruze, the only vehicle produced at the facility, began to slip, GM shuttered the third shift in January 2017, axing 800 jobs. Over the course of 2017, the plant was idled for weeks at a time and rumors began to circulate about the impending layoffs.

As an indication of the severity of the cuts, this is the first time since the recession of the 1980s that the plant will operate with only one shift.

[...] The company sold 450,000 fewer vehicles to dealers last year than they did in 2016, but because of aggressive cost-cutting attacks on the workers, imposed by the union, which include everything from an expansion of Temporary Part Time employees at less than half pay, widespread layoffs and shutdowns[,] GM pretax profits for 2017 topped $12.8 billion.

US passenger car sales are on track to decline for the fifth straight year while sales of light trucks are setting records. US sales of compact cars dropped 10 percent in the first quarter and 5.8 percent through 2017.

Lordstown is not the only plant affected by this shift. GM's Detroit-Hamtramck factory, for example, relies heavily on production of small and midsize sedans, including the Buick LaCrosse, Cadillac CT6, Chevrolet Impala, and the Chevrolet Volt. In October, the automaker announced plans to cut about 200 jobs there and halt production beginning November 20 through the Christmas break, affecting 1,500 jobs over the holidays. The second shift was eliminated in March 2017, eliminating 1,300 jobs.

[...] The same conditions are developing in [GM] factories everywhere as GM pursues its cost-cutting strategy with a vengeance.


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by RandomFactor on Thursday April 19 2018, @04:07AM (11 children)

    by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Thursday April 19 2018, @04:07AM (#668843) Journal

    Summarized: Company selling less of specific model car. Company cuts car production staff at factory making that model. Company is an evil force attacking workers and this disproves overall economy trends.

    This logic doesn't make sense to me...."The World Socialist Web Site reports"....never mind, all is clear.

    --
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 19 2018, @05:33AM (10 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 19 2018, @05:33AM (#668878)

    Company cuts car production staff at factory making that model

    That's what Capitalists do.
    You left off the part where they found work for those folks at another facility or revamped the facility.
    ...because they don't.

    I've mentioned the (Socialist) Mondragon cooperative many times before.
    When they were faced with a similar situation, they (being a worker-owned cooperative) didn't shed any workers.

    With housing starts being down due to the worldwide economic slump (Thanks, boom-and-bust Capitalists and governments under the thumb of Oligarchs), appliance sales were down.
    Mondragon moved workers in their appliance division around to different production lines, everyone worked just a bit less each week, and there were no major changes in any of the worker-owners' lives.

    Socialism rocks!

    -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday April 19 2018, @10:33AM (8 children)

      by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday April 19 2018, @10:33AM (#668981) Homepage Journal

      The company sold 450,000 fewer vehicles to dealers last year than they did in 2016

      Your unwillingness to take the lack of selling what that factory was making into account is why socialism has always failed. Likewise, GM's unwillingness to build a decent vehicle like say Toyota does is why they sold so many fewer. Ideology is all fine and good but it will not change reality nor can you eat it.

      --
      My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 19 2018, @11:14AM (3 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 19 2018, @11:14AM (#669006)

        Mondragon was founded in 1956 with 6 worker-owners.
        Currently, Mondragon has over 100,000 worker-owners in 40 countries on 5 continents.

        You wish all your "failures" went so well.

        -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

        • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday April 19 2018, @11:22AM (2 children)

          by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday April 19 2018, @11:22AM (#669011) Homepage Journal

          So, every other attempt on the planet vs. one success story? You're not going to win any arguments like that.

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 19 2018, @11:56AM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 19 2018, @11:56AM (#669023)

            google.com/search?q=%22*.percent.of.businesses.fail.within.*.years%22
            (I do wish the comments engine wasn't so phobic about quote marks in hyperlinks.)

            within the first 10 results yields:

            25 Percent of New Businesses Fail Within the First Two Years

            Why 96 Percent of Businesses Fail Within 10 Years

            I'm quite certain that they're talking about Capitalist operations.

            -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

      • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 19 2018, @11:46AM (3 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 19 2018, @11:46AM (#669016)

        Everybody--well, everybody except the recent bunch of Capitalists--knows that you **meet** demand; trying to *create* demand by overproduction is just stupid.

        That's why Capitalism is known for its boom-and-bust cycles.
        ...going into a slump on average every 4 to 7 years.
        ...with a complete cratering about every 80 years.
        If you had a roommate as unstable as Capitalism, you'd have kicked his ass out long ago.

        -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

        • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday April 19 2018, @11:55AM (1 child)

          by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday April 19 2018, @11:55AM (#669022) Homepage Journal

          That's why Capitalism is known for its boom-and-bust cycles.

          Your logic isn't. The goal is as slight an overproduction as possible. The economic system you choose has nothing at all to do with how well you can predict that.

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.
          • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 19 2018, @12:10PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 19 2018, @12:10PM (#669031)

            overproduction

            I assure you that "Supply-Side Economics" wasn't the invention of a Socialist.

            The notion of infinite growth (infinite consumption) in a finite world is strictly Capitalist in nature.
            (Obviously not saying here that all Capitalists are wise; many are simply stupid--but driven by insatiable greed.)

            -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday April 19 2018, @02:10PM

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday April 19 2018, @02:10PM (#669097) Journal

          trying to *create* demand by overproduction is just stupid.

          Except when it wildly succeeds. Bacon for breakfast!

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 19 2018, @09:29PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 19 2018, @09:29PM (#669326)

      Lordstown is tooled up for making the Cruze, which isn't a bad car. But (for whatever reasons), the sales of cars, particularly smaller sized cars, are way down at this time. Toyota/Honda/Nissan (who all make cars in USA as well as Japan and elsewhere) have the same problem selling smaller sized cars. The new vehicle sales are (stupidly, imo) currently dominated by trucks/SUVs.

      Even if all the Lordstown workers pooled their piggy bank money, I strongly doubt that they could design and re-tool that plant to make a more popular product. Look at all the money pumped into Tesla and it is still far from turning any profit. Interestingly, Tesla is located in a former GM plant that also used to make small cars (last use was a joint venture with Toyota).