GM Slashing 14,000 Jobs

With GM doing this it makes you wonder how Chrysler is doing. I hope the people who lost jobs have a back up plan or an easy time finding a new job. This also sucks for them a month away from Christmas.

 

Government fleets cant keep them afloat

 

Not to worry, the next 50 Billion Dollar bailout will get GM right back on track! I'll be sure to tell all my GM- fan friends to line-up to buy those Chi-Com built, Buick Envisions. They're easy to spot when in the Buick showrooms; they're the ones wrapped up in Ole' Glory! BUICK... American, tried and true!

 

My only GM purchase was bought back by the dealer. I gave them a try.

Wonder how many less jobs would be hit if the workforce had another option other than the UAW...

 

UAW has buried them. There's a reason the auto manufacturers have wised up and moved plants to right-to-work states. That should have been a stipulation of the bail-out, the unions become optional.

Many large industrials are on the verge of collapse because of unfathomable costs attributed to union labor. Major railroads are contracting track repairs because it's 30-50% less than having their employees on the job.

 

I feel like this happens because we have raised the minimum wage. Now everybody wants a raise. Now everything cost too much. Just my opinion.

 

I’ve been a fan of Deming since college and a staunch supporter of lowering the levels of management a la TQM strategies.

I hate to see people losing jobs, but we support it. We use ATMs - self serve gas - self checkout - online shopping etc. I use ATMs - but I try to do as little online shopping as possible and NEVER use self checkout.

I don’t however support the notion that buying a Toyota doesn’t support the US. Heck our trucks are built in Texas.

The point I’m making is that if you want to stop or help with the dissolution of jobs - do your part. Take a few extra minutes and stand in line. Get off line and go to the store.

Other than that.....

 

I don’t necessarily agree - I think wages have increased because everything else has increased from a cost perspective.

Young people can barely afford to buy a home because the prices have gone up more than the wages.

 

This is terrible for the workers but I have to commend GM for thinking straight on this one. Car buying and profitable car buying is at an all time high (trucks & SUVs). So, by cutting in areas that are a drag on profits they can bolster their balance sheet and maybe during the next recession they wont cry to congress about needing bailout money. But that means they will need to learn from their prior mistakes. I wont hold my breath but at least the intention is there this time.

 

I’m Just saying....

 

I'm going to be the dissenter here.

The UAW could be part of the solution, there are a lot of younger guys who are out there who want to be part of the solution that are drowned out by the old timers in both the job and union management. There needs to be a shake up on both the corporate and union sides to get younger blood in that realize the company can't stay in business with no workers and to realize that unhappy workers cost more money than happy ones.

GM, Ford, Chyrsler, GE, etc, for years blindly signed on to whatever the unions wanted because they were booming but never made the effort to try to improve their product. Then when it all comes crashing down they scream that the workers are getting paid too much while taking millions in salary themselves and getting crazy severance packages for screwing up.

RTW is not the answer either, sure it brings in more jobs but they're lower paying and can be dangerous.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/feat...oom-cheap-wages-little-training-crushed-limbs

The minimum wage is neither the problem or the answer. Corporations care more about profits than they do about workers which is a detriment to both, like it or not the country was built on the back of labor and corporations being forced to compensate fairly through new laws, regulations, and unions. Corporate profits right now are at an all time high while wages are still stuck on the spending power of the 1970's.

 

Agreed!

 

Disclaimer: I'm non-union.
I will marginally agree. I have friends that work for the railroad, DOD, and the auto industry. All union positions, all guys my age (mid 30's), all hard workers, all sick of the BS. Hard working, younger guys, do want to buck the system. Because we realize it's broken. But there is no recourse because of the old-breed and the union power.
-Co-workers making 2x or even 3x more than a 1-5 year employee. New breed does all the work, old breed sits around and says "that's not my job, I'll call my rep". I believe in pay for performance, not pay for seniority. There should be yearly increases based on performance, quality pay increases. But if you're going to do the same job, the same way, or worse over the course of 20 years, your pay should only go up in relation to inflation, cost of living, or demand for skills.
-1-5 year employees lack any sort of real bargaining. They are told what to do, what to say, how to act, they're indoctrinated. Those that don't conform are pushed out of the way. Why should a hard working, skilled, 3 year employee only get 10 paid days off per year, but some shithead that's been in the same position for 20 years gets 30 paid days off per year? It goes much deeper than that, but easy example.
-The unions have driven up the actual cost that an employee is worth to a company so high that most union firms/industries have turned to contracting as a way to stay afloat. In most cases the contractors do the job for less money, faster, at a higher standard, and their employees are paid better. Sure they don't have "union protection", but that's what's making the contractors so much money in the first place. The smaller firms and contractors end up with the younger, driven, individuals that want to get the job done and make bank.
-Minimum wage manipulation is not the answer. People will get paid what they are worth. If someone is willing to do a job for $xxx then have at it. When the quality of work or output suffers the employer/corporation will also suffer or pay positions more money to increase quality. It's all relative. Again, pay for performance/demand.

-I will not agree that the current union model is part of the solution. The amount of reform that would need to take place doesn't make sense. Right-to-work states still allow unions, they're just not mandatory enrollment. Right-to-work is the solution for the time being.

 

Agreed! One of the other issues is that typically that 30yr employee should be retiring now, but with the incentives and "cush" positions they have, people tend to stay longer. So there is minimal room for growth within a company. And it forces a lot of people to company hop. I have had this discussion with my family that has worked for the same company their entire careers. They don't understand that by their generation prolonging retirement it is forcing the younger generations to move more. Then have the balls to ask why they have worked at 3 companies in the past 7 years.

 

Maybe they should follow Toyota's lead. Most of their plants if not all are non union in the states I believe.

 

What y'all are forgetting is that GM is not slashing jobs because they are losing money; they are slashing jobs because they are eliminating product lines and moving to electric and self-driving vehicles. Since late 2016 to now, their stock has generally gone up in price, so it's not about profits right now, it's about shifting direction on the types of vehicle currently produced in their line up.



So while everyone makes good points on quality, unions, etc. it's not the reason for the plant closures and elimination of vehicle types.

 

GM is just doing what Ford did....focus on SUVs and trucks. Trucks' profit margins are huge. The difference is Ford did it much more responsibly with few layoffs. GM could save a few thousand jobs just by moving truck manufacturing out of Mexico and back to the states. Some folks have wrongly blamed GM's situation on tariffs. The US spent 2.3+trillion $ on total imports last year. The new tariffs only added 2% or 49 billion$. We still have the lowest tariffs in the world. We have been getting gouged badly. Even with the added steel tariffs the big three still make huge profits on truck sales. Expect Dodge to do the same or something similar. No sense using part of truck sale profits to subsidize unprofitable product lines and the associated costs.

 

Yep. GMs stock went up 5% yesterday with the news. I do want to mention that one of the plants closing for good is the one for the Volt.

 

You left out trucks, their biggest profit maker.

 

Yep. Which is against what they are claiming they want to build more of

 

The Volt did suck. Definitely most were sold into fleets. GM can do better than that.

 

Pay your trucks off now gents. They’ll be worth nothing soon. Wait until gas prices jump.

Glad I still have two cars

 

Mine's paid for so I'll keep it.

If/when gas gets up there again I'll go throw $3500 out on another beater 1st gen xB for my DD. Great little hoopty.

 

And what's the environmental impact on recycling those dead batteries when they fail.

Just out of curiosity, how many people are employed by Toyota building Tundras in Texas?

 

Nor should Chrysler been saved back in the 80s.
Or the banks recently, we (figuratively speaking) reward failed management by bailing them out .

 

so much this. everyone forgets that little piece. plus, the manufacturing process for the batteries isn't all that friendly in environmental terms. then you've got to ship the batteries because they aren't necessarily made in the same plant or even geographic location. tesla would be the exception. but even with them, they aren't handing out cars to their employees. so, there's a few thousand people commuting several hours per day to and from the plant.

can't remember the exact number, it's been awhile since i've been in the san antonio plant, but it's huge. many of their suppliers also have plants at the same site and they're all connected. all of their manufacturing sites that i've been to are roughly the same size.

 

And the trunk area makes for a nice sounding system

 

From the impression I get, from some of the GM fan boiz I've talked to, they see Toyotas being shipped from Japan, on the same ships that the bombers of Pearl Harbor, were launched from. While EVERY vehicle GM, Ford and Chrysler build, roll right out of Detroit, built by Sam and Joe, their American neighbors! Can't change people's mind with facts, if all they know is what they ASSUME.

 

That perception is never going to change.

 

Not to mention the environmental impact of mining neodymium for most electric car batteries. Neodymium is a rare earth metal mainly mined in China. Those mines have little to no environmental controls and China controls neodymium prices which makes the batteries quite expensive. Expensive enough that tax payers are subsidizing them with every over priced electric car made and sold here. The Volts were heavily subsidized and GM still couldn't make a profit.