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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 19 2018, @04:47AM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 19 2018, @04:47AM (#668858)

    I feel the same way about socialism. It’s amazing that Venezuela fell whereas Chile is doing so well.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 19 2018, @06:28AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 19 2018, @06:28AM (#668897)

    Venezuela is Bolivarian (Anti-Imperialist) but calling it Socialist (worker-owned cooperatives) is a real stretch.
    The Capitalist Oligarchs still essentially run the country.
    (They have a problem similar to USA's" bought-off politicians.)

    While Venezuela has a nice little start on Socialism, but it still has fewer than 1500 "communes"--and its population is 32M.

    Chile is doing so well

    Chile had a murderous USA.gov-backed dictator for a generation.
    Any opposition was utterly destroyed.
    Chile is still propped up economically by USA.gov.
    If USA.gov did to Chile what it has been doing to Cuba for 6 decades (and to Venezuela since Chavez was elected), Chile would fold like a cheap suit.

    -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday April 19 2018, @09:53AM (2 children)

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday April 19 2018, @09:53AM (#668962) Journal

      Venezuela is Bolivarian (Anti-Imperialist) but calling it Socialist (worker-owned cooperatives) is a real stretch.

      Sure it is. But not if we use the normal meaning of words like "socialist".

      The Capitalist Oligarchs still essentially run the country.

      That's code for "We fucked up. Better blame the usual scapegoats." If the above were true, rather than the usual rhetorical dodge, those Capitalist Oligarchs" would still own and run the oil fields that they owned and ran before the Bolivarian experiment kicked off.

      Chile is still propped up economically by USA.gov.

      What is the nature of this propping up? What fraction of their economy are we speaking of?

      Strange how once again, you felt the need to defend the likes of Venezuela and Cuba.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 19 2018, @01:14PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 19 2018, @01:14PM (#669074)

        We fucked up. Better blame the usual scapegoats.

        Because capitalist oligarchs would never do such a thing. Capitalism would be perfect if not for those meddlesome Russians and their super power of spending chump change on Failbook ads to swing a whole election!

        • (Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Thursday April 19 2018, @02:06PM

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday April 19 2018, @02:06PM (#669095) Journal

          Capitalism would be perfect if not for those meddlesome Russians and their super power of spending chump change on Failbook ads to swing a whole election!

          Mere money is not how you can measure the critical impact of the Russian menace. They also issued over 3,000 ads. 3,000 is a big number and our mental defenses aren't geared to take on big numbers. So after you've seen these ads for 3,000 times, your defenses are completely used up. You're like, "Ok, so I see clearly now how the Lizardoids ran the pizza shop child porn factory for the Clinton mafia, but what are we doing about it?" And then you vote Trump. Because the only thing he'd be stuffing at a pizza restaurant is his face. You've seen the size of the guy!

          The Russians need to be stopped and this is the only way. 3,000+ ads told me so.