General Motors plans to lay off 2,000 employees at two U.S. auto plants in early 2017, the automaker said on Wednesday.
GM's Lordstown, Ohio and Lansing, Michigan plants build slow-selling cars sold by Chevrolet and Cadillac. GM said it will furlough the employees when it cuts the third shift at both plants in January.
GM says the furlough is a response to what the company believes will be a continued shift from cars to crossovers and trucks. The Lordstown plant builds the compact Chevrolet Cruze, whose U.S. sales through October were down 20%. The Lansing Grand River plant builds the Cadillac ATS and CTS, whose sales were down 17% through October.
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General Motors to Lay Off 2,000 Employees in Ohio and Michigan
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(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 12 2016, @11:47AM
Smart move.
I'm absolutely certain that the next government is going to shovel money at ostensibly "US" businesses to bring the jerbs back to America. Start failing now and wait for the success to come with the new administration.
(Score: 3, Funny) by driverless on Sunday November 13 2016, @02:30AM
It's OK, Fuehrer Trump will reverse all this when he comes into power.
(Score: 2) by art guerrilla on Saturday November 12 2016, @12:33PM
first world problem:
is it (easily) possible to make the 'comments' link on at the btm of the summary next to the 'read more' button be a little bigger (if not similar sized button) ? ? ?
especially on my tablet, it is relatively easy to smoosh the 'read more' button, but to just barely use the tippy tip molecules of my pinkie finger i can *almost* smoosh the comment number linky thingy...
sometimes...
maybe it is just me, but just asking anyways...
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Saturday November 12 2016, @04:23PM
Reading on my phone, I zoom in to click small targets.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 12 2016, @12:51PM
I'm sure our newly elected, dear leader will bring these jobs back. Sod the fact that you'll have to pay 5x what you'd want to pay for the product if all of that happens. Jahbs, Jahbs, Jahbs people...
Buh... I never felt like I needed a drink so early in a presidency... and it hasn't even started yet.
(Score: 2) by quintessence on Saturday November 12 2016, @01:25PM
While being someone who generally favors free trade, Trump has a point that several aspects of current agreements aren't beneficial in the long term, and while we may cast aspersion about who they will favor in the next round, let's not forget propping up car manufacturers last time around came from the other side of the isle, and in fact was part and parcel of the last revolt in the Republican party.
Saving jobs by supporting the corrupt is just ass backwards and a waste of resources. Recognizing that capital is fluid while labor is not and attempting to mitigate that imbalance, however flawed it may be, is sane growth, even if that means favoring companies that actually produce in the US.
Besides, Trump stated his brand of a jobs program was rebuilding infrastructure.
And before the illiterati start casting stones, no, I'm really not a fan of Trump.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 12 2016, @06:36PM
labor is not
By choice, not by necessity.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 12 2016, @11:21PM
>> labor is not [mobile]
>
> By choice, not by necessity.
Said like somebody with absolutely no family or friends who has never lived in country where no one speaks his language.
But yeah, totally by choice.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 13 2016, @02:07AM
Millions managed to immigrate to the United States, when they were allowed to. Indeed, millions have immigrated there in spite of it being forbidden.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 12 2016, @11:19PM
> Trump has a point that several aspects of current agreements aren't beneficial in the long term,
Which specific aspects are those?
Because he's been saying the same thing for decades, except each time he says it, he complains about a different country. Funny how he's always right regardless of the circumstances.
Here he is in 1988 talking the exact same shit about Japan instead of China: Trump in 1988 (3 minutes) [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by quintessence on Sunday November 13 2016, @09:27AM
Well, we can start with the TN visas which are not reciprocal as far as I know
http://www.visalawyerblog.com/2010/04/06/tn_visa_lawyer_difference_betw/ [visalawyerblog.com]
and maquiladoras, which essentially give companies with large capital the benefits of US society without bearing much of the costs that other non-favored business have.
It also helped move multi-nationals to more prominence. I'd rather US companies stayed mostly in the US and dealt with the full consequences, or move to Mexico entirely and they can pay to deal with the problems in Mexico.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 13 2016, @07:37PM
> Well, we can start with the TN visas which are not reciprocal as far as I know
Close enough reciprocity. [canadavisa.com] Still, TN visas are insignificant. Only about 8,000 TN visas per year [tnvisasample.com] H1B does 130,000 per year.
> maquiladoras
Dead. They were something 15 years ago, but China drained off those ultra-low-skill jobs even from Mexico. [sciencedirect.com] Sure there are a few hanging on by their fingernails, but effectively its a non-issue. Mexico got screwed by NAFTA on that one, the gold rush for those border towns lasted about a decade and now they are ghost towns.
> It also helped move multi-nationals to more prominence.
Well, that cuts both ways, those companies are multinationals because not only do they have international sales, they also have international supply chains. US manufacturing output is up 70% since NAFTA. [stlouisfed.org] We are the 2nd largest exporter, after China. That's what multinationals have done for the US.
(Score: 2) by quintessence on Sunday November 13 2016, @09:01PM
Still, TN visas are insignificant.
Except per the DHS, Canadians are the majority of illegals in US now.
http://www.latintimes.com/canadian-immigrants-lead-world-illegal-us-visa-overstays-according-first-ever-dhs-367906 [latintimes.com]
And it's not like Trump hasn't spoken to H1B visas. And while Canada has improved significantly over the last decade, it wasn't quite that easy to immigrate into Canada even shortly after NAFTA was signed.
Sure there are a few hanging on by their fingernails, but effectively its a non-issue.
You looking at a 10 year span from when NAFTA was signed, ignoring the effects it had on US manufacturing in the interim, and only looking at a very different world now.
Per wiki:
Between 1995 and 2000, exports of assembled products in Mexico tripled, and the rate of the industry’s growth amounted to about one new factory per day.
Since globalization and physical restructuring[citation needed] have contributed to the competition and advent of low-cost offshore assembly in places such as China, and countries in Central America, maquiladoras in Mexico have been on the decline since 2000: According to federal sources, approximately 529 maquiladoras shut down and investment in assembly plants decreased by 8.2 percent in 2002 after the imposition of countervailing duties on Chinese products, not available in North America, that were part of the electronics supply chain.[9] Despite the decline, over 3,000 maquiladoras still exist along the 2,000 mile-long United States–Mexico border, providing employment for approximately one million workers, and importing more than $51 billion in supplies into Mexico.
And especially with consideration of TPP, you are looking at a rehash probably with Viet Nam.
US manufacturing output is up 70% since NAFTA.
Per your graph, US manufacturing was on the uptick prior to NAFTA, and doesn't tease out which parts were directly attributable to NAFTA.
That's what multinationals have done for the US.
Except the largest employers in the US are still small businesses.
The vast majority of trade agreements essentially function as gimmes to multi-nationals while leaving other businesses in the lurch. If we are talking about free trade, then let's do free trade instead of deals that are written with the interests of multi-nationals in mind.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 13 2016, @02:23AM
This just sounds like GM being slightly smart for a change. Note that they are reducing the plants from 3 shifts to 2 shifts, not closing them down. Given the thousands of GM cars (and trucks) parked in the back of a nearby mall and other places around here, it's about time that GM started cutting back or they will have to use large incentives to sell all those cars.
Same story in http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-gm-factories-20161109-story.html [chicagotribune.com]
> Laid-off workers will get supplemental pay and state unemployment benefits that will amount to most of their wages for a year.
> The company doesn't know when the workers will be called back to the factories, said spokesman Tom Wickham. "Looking ahead at 2017 we know that the car market continues to soften and the crossover (SUV) and full-size truck market continues to grow," he said.
> Americans have been moving away from cars toward trucks and SUVs for several years now as gas prices have dropped to near $2 per gallon and the larger vehicles have become more efficient. Baby boomers and young people are attracted to smaller SUVs because of their cargo-carrying ability, high seating position and visibility. Also, most are now built on car underpinnings, so they are more maneuverable than old truck-based SUVS.
> Last month, 61.6 percent of U.S. new vehicle sales were trucks and SUVs while cars dropped to 38.4 percent, according to Autodata Corp. A year ago trucks and SUVs accounted for 57.6 percent of sales.
Ford already shut down a few plants for a week or so, same problem of oversupply. The auto business is cyclical, that's reality.
Now, if we did something to raise gas prices a bit, all of a sudden people would buy less of these giant Stupid Useless Vehicles.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 12 2016, @01:45PM
The cars will now be assembled in Mexico. Nice job Obama.
(Score: 2) by Dunbal on Saturday November 12 2016, @02:26PM
It's just their way of saying "thanks for the bailout, suckers"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 12 2016, @02:58PM
trump save er jerbs! oh wait, he will kill trade agreements, but the products will then cost a lot more....recession time...
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 12 2016, @03:42PM
No, he's going to make it less profitable for the corporations that send jobs across the border. If Clinton was elected, this same old shit would continue.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 12 2016, @06:02PM
Notice how Trump's wall is getting smaller and less impressive now that he's won the election. Expect that trend to continue.
The Incredible Shrinking Border Wall.
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 12 2016, @06:42PM
The peso has declined in value too, so it all works out.
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 12 2016, @07:38PM
The "wall" doesn't have to be a brick and mortar construction. It can be anything from an impenetrable fence to real border guarding, instead of the welcome mat that it is now. And... getting tired of the looser Clinton supporters marking posts as troll. It was so nice of you to go protesting the election results on Veterans day.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 12 2016, @07:51PM
getting tired of the looser Clinton supporters marking posts as troll
That type of asshattery has been fairly bi-directional.
Disgusted that we've moved from 7 Words You Can't Say On TV to browbeating pits of pettiness.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 12 2016, @08:13PM
getting tired of the looser Clinton supporters marking posts as troll
I've seen both the looser and the tighter Trump supporters marking posts as troll, as well. So what's your point?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 13 2016, @04:05PM
Do not invoke "veteran's day" so self-sanctimoniously. What have you ever done? If you like veterans so much, tell me, how much do you give them when they are holding up their sign on the intersection? If we, as a nation, hold our veterans in such high regard, why do they even have to stand at the intersection with a sign reading "family in need, anything helps"
You self-sanctimonious asshole!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 13 2016, @05:44PM
The ones standing in the intersection holding signs that say "need money to feed my kids" are not veterans, but are professional beggars that drive new cars and own a house. Already proven by local news stations following them around with video cameras. I'm all for veterans getting better support than wetbacks, unlike the way it is now where wetbacks get a free ride while vets get screwed. This is just one of the reasons I voted Trump, because Cliton would just continue with the degradation of America.