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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.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 19 2018, @11:46AM (3 children)
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)
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
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
Except when it wildly succeeds. Bacon for breakfast!