GM To Cut 1 Shift Each From 4 Truck Factories, Lay Off 3,500 Workers

[Purveyor]

Source: Associated Press

The world’s largest automaker said the cuts are due to sagging sales, brought on by high gasoline prices and an economic downturn.

GM said the cuts will affect pickup factories in Pontiac; Flint; and Oshawa, Ontario; as well as the full-sized SUV plant in Janesville, Wis.

The company said the cuts mean it will make about 88,000 fewer pickups and 50,000 fewer big SUVs this calendar year.

GM said the exact number of layoffs will be worked out with its unions. Workers will get unemployment benefits and supplemental pay that total 80 percent of their normal 40-hour gross pay, said GM spokesman Dan Flores.

“With rising fuel prices, a softening economy and a downward trend on current and future market demand for full-sized trucks, a significant adjustment was needed to align our production with market realities,” GM North America President Troy Clarke said in a statement.


Read more: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080428/BUSINESS01/80428069&loc=interstitialskip

[ananda]

1. drip drip flood flood

nt

[msongs]

2. too bad GM killed its electric car - it could be leading the market right now :-( nt

[sueh]

13. Spot on. I finally had a chance to see the documentary on Starz this past weekend.

edited for spelling

[OhioChick]

3. Hope There is Room Under Bridges....

We're going to have a lot of people living under them soon.

[Frustratedlady]

5. Are you talking about all those bridges that need repair?

Those which are slated in future infrastructure replacement programs? Those bridges?

This has got to be a blow, but it will also dribble down to the steel workers and component suppliers, right?

[OhioChick]

7. You're right...

Bridges are out....the whole nation's infrastructure is falling apart.

Where then are we supposed to "house" all of the homeless, as well as the soon to be homeless? :sarcasm:

[DemocratInSoCal]

4. Market Realities?

They can GO FUCK THEMSELVES, with their "market realities."

FUCKERS

[merwin]

6. This coming from the company who ramped up its SUV production last year.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_19/b3983040.htm?chan=autos_autos+index+page_news

[tabasco]

14. Mind boggling, isn't it?

The people who make these decisions make millions in salary.

[Kolesar]

15. Because the SUVs and large trucks were GM's newest products

and hence "well positioned" for new sales. I don't know if GM has taken significant sales away from Ford, who had a strong position in large pickup trucks, but that was the whole point of the sales strategy.

[merwin]

16. And instead of seeing the writing on the wall with fuel prices, which they had

plenty of knowledge of, they are now laying off employees.

[Kolesar]

17. The large truck and SUV customers are not there because of the recession

...not so much the fuel prices. Did you read in the article where the one truck is rated 20 mpg city ?

[merwin]

18. Not to burst your bubble, but 20mpg city is not that great.

People were buying these outrageous large trucks and SUV's because gas was cheap and they were discounting the hell out of them initially. Now GM can't afford to discount them anymore and people are looking for more economical and gas efficient vehicles.

This is purely poor decision making on the part of GM.

[Kolesar]

19. There are customers for large pick-up trucks

...and GM has the advantage over the other manufacturers.

[jakefrep]

20. For a large pickup truck, 20mpg is pretty good.

nt

[gristy]

8. the recession snowballs

yikes.

[Deja Q]

9. Market reality - as has been said before,

that electric car really would put them back on top...

[OhioChick]

10. ..............

Buy American, get Chinese engine
Thursday, March 27, 2008

In global supply era, old way of thinking on parts has become quaint.

OSHAWA, Ontario -- General Motors car engines were once the stuff of American legend. The Beach Boys sang, "nothing can touch my 409," about a powerful Chevy V-8. Oldsmobile owners in 1981 were so angered that their cars had been fitted with Chevrolet engines instead of Oldsmobile "Rockets," the subject of another hit song, that they successfully sued GM over the swap.

The company has since eliminated brand distinctions between engines, saddling them with names unlikely to inspire songwriters, like Ecotec, Vortec and Northstar. But some owners of the Chevrolet Equinox, a "compact" sport utility vehicle built in North America, might be surprised to learn the origin of the engine under their hoods -- it's made in China.

Last year, China exported more than $12 billion in auto parts, up from less than $2 billion in 2002 -- the majority to North America. The increase in exports has added to the problems plaguing North American suppliers. Most famously, Delphi, which is seeking to emerge from bankruptcy, has closed dozens of plants and moved some production overseas to become more competitive, including to China.

Soon China will be exporting whole vehicles to North America. Last year, Chrysler signed a deal with China's largest car company, Chery Automobile, to supply a Dodge subcompact.

One of the most important steps on China's long march to becoming an auto exporter was the little-noticed arrival of the humble engine inside the 2005 Chevy Equinox.

http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080327/AUTO01/803270319/1148

[dflprincess]

11. Meanwhile,

Cuba just bought $2 Billion worth of buses for a badly needed upgrade of the public transportation system in Havana - I don't imagine GM was even allowed to put a bid in for the contract.

[nichomachus]

12. Fedex guy told me today

that the company is kind of encouraging them to take a week off without pay.

The local supermarket has cut people back to where they won't qualify for benefits. Told them that if they want a full week's pay, they have to start using vacation days.

The local Cheesecake Factory (restaurant) just closed. It was only two years old -- and I live in a pretty well-off community.