Jobs bloodbath at Ford and GM
Ford announces 1,000 job cuts as GM begins mass layoffs
US automakers began their jobs bloodbath on Monday as General Motors started dismissing 4,250 engineers, technicians, managers and other white-collar workers and the news emerged that Ford will eliminate the second shift at its Flat Rock, Michigan assembly plant by April 1, wiping out more than 1,000 hourly jobs.
GM plans to close five factories in the US and Canada, including major assembly plants in Detroit, Lordstown, Ohio and Oshawa, Ontario, and destroy more than 14,000 production and salaried workers’ jobs.
Ford workers leave after a shift change in Chicago
In response, autoworkers and their supporters are preparing a demonstrationthis Saturday in front of the GM headquarters in downtown Detroit. “We are determined that workers are not going to be the forgotten men and women,” said Jerry White, the editor of the WSWS Autoworker Newsletter, in response to the layoff announcement.
“No matter whether white collar or blue collar, all workers are part of the 90 percent of society that are the victims of corporate capitalism gone rampant,” he added.
Workers left the GM Tech Center in Warren, Michigan carrying their belongings. The worker carrying the houseplant said she had been laid off Monday.
“The latest round of mass layoffs is another testament to the betrayal at the hands of the corporate stooges who run the United Auto Workers.” White said. “The 40 years since the first concessions contract at Chrysler have made clear that their actions are not an accumulation of mistakes, but a deliberate policy of imposing the dictates of management on the workers.
“We are calling this demonstration as the first step in the mobilization of the working class throughout the United States, North America and the world in defense of workers’ social rights."
Throughout Monday, white collar workers at the GM Tech Center in the Detroit suburb of Warren and other locations were called into meetings and told whether or not this would be their last day of work. Workers left the front door of the complex with personal possessions, including office supplies and indoor plants. The refrain, “I lost my job,” was heard over and over.
“The situation was tense inside,” one worker told the WSWS. “We read about the layoffs in the Detroit Free Press but nobody knew who was going to be hit.” Another said, “It was horrible and there are going to be more tomorrow.”
Workers leave the GM tech center in Warren
Throughout the day, workers posted anonymous statements on thelayoff.com. “I was one of those that was escorted out and I asked why. No answer could be provided other than: a vague: it's a rough decision, business reasons, nothing personal. etc. I always had great performance reviews, I knew nobody was safe, but I was not expecting this. Some people let go today had over 20 years with General Motors. It's sad. It's the end of the road here.”
“We've watched it countless times over two decades, people walked out like criminals,” another post said. “Box in hand, walk you out to your car. I guess reality hits people sooner than others.”
Last November, GM announced that it was eliminating more than 6,000 production jobs and another 8,000 white-collar jobs this year to save $6 billion by 2020. After more than half of those offered exit packages refused to be pressured into “voluntary retirement,” the company moved ahead with the mass firings.
This week’s layoffs were launched in advance of Wednesday’s release of GM’s 2018 profit report, which is expected to show a reduction from the $11.9 billion the company made in 2017. The timing of the firings is designed to reassure Wall Street that company executives are determined to accelerate their brutal cost-cutting.
The scheduled plant closings are at the same time being used as blackmail to extract major concessions from 154,000 GM, Ford and Chrysler workers whose four-year labor agreements expire in September.
Even as white collar GM workers were being marched out of the Tech Center and other locations, a local ABC News affiliate in Detroit reported that Ford sent a notification on January 25 to the Michigan state government of a “mass layoff” of 1,012 workers planned for April 1 at the Flat Rock Assembly Plant in the downriver suburbs of Detroit. More than 3,500 hourly workers currently build the luxury Lincoln Navigator SUV and Mustang sports car at the Flat Rock plant.
The company, which last month reported North American profits of $3.7 billion in 2018, is carrying out a restructuring of its global operations, which could affect 25,000 or more workers in Europe, Latin America and the US. This includes the shutdown of plants and mass layoffs in Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Russia. Last month, the layoff of 12 workers at a Ford Brazil factory sparked a wildcat strike, forcing the company to rehire the workers.
According to a WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining) notice, the Flat Rock layoff would be “indefinite” and would affect 560 hourly nonskilled workers, 440 hourly nonskilled temporary workers and 12 salaried employees. A Ford spokesman claimed that while full-time workers would be offered transfers, likely to the Livonia Transmission plant, temporary workers, some who have worked at the company for years, are not eligible to transfer.
The United Auto Workers (UAW) made it clear that it would do nothing to oppose the shift elimination at the Flat Rock plant. UAW Vice President Rory Gamble told the Free Press, “We have been informed by Ford that due to sales, there will be scheduled work reductions at the Flat Rock, Michigan and Louisville, Kentucky plants. Our collectively bargained contract provides for the placement of all members displaced by the shift reduction and, after working with Ford, we are confident that all impacted employees will have the opportunity to work at nearby facilities.”
Gamble said nothing about the fate of the hundreds of temporary part-time workers, who are forced to pay dues to the UAW but have absolutely no rights. In the last UAW-Ford agreement, the union sanctioned a vast increase in the number of these low-paid disposable workers.
Ford Flat Rock workers contacted by the WSWS expressed skepticism that they would, in fact, be able to transfer. There were also concerns about keeping their seniority if they did move to the transmission plant. Workers also expressed concern about TPT (temporary part-time) workers at the Livonia plant who would likely be fired to make way for full-time workers.
The mass layoffs underscore the bankruptcy and betrayal of the UAW and the Unifor union in Canada, which have claimed for decades that wage and benefit concessions would “save” jobs. The unions, which function as the industrial police force for the auto companies, have opposed any genuine fight against the plant closings and mass layoffs. Instead they are peddling economic nationalism, blaming Mexican and Chinese workers for the layoffs, even as tens of thousands of workers in Matamoros, Mexico are fighting the same globally organized corporations.
The February 9 demonstration, sponsored by the World Socialist Web Site Autoworker Newsletter and the Steering Committee of the Coalition of Rank-and-File Committees, will call for the building of factory committees, independent of the United Auto Workers and the Unifor union in Canada, to unite workers throughout the US, Canada and Mexico with workers throughout the world to fight the plant closings and mass layoffs.
The demonstration will begin at 2:00 pm EST. GM headquarters is located at 300 Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit, Michigan. To sign up for updates, go to wsws.org/auto.
GM Starts Laying Off Thousands of American Workers
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/02/04/gm-starts-laying-off-thousands-of-american-workers/
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Executives at General Motors (GM) have started laying off American workers in Michigan, Ohio, Maryland, Georgia, and Texas, while the multinational corporation is reportedly expanding production in China and Mexico.
In what insiders are calling “Black Monday,” American workers at GM — those in factory, financial, and other white-collar jobs — have started being laid off by the corporation with workers posting firsthand accounts online.
The Monday layoffs of at least 4,000 GM white-collar American workers in Michigan, Ohio, Maryland, Georgia, and Texas is just the latest component of the corporation’s laying off of 14,700 workers in North America — including at least 3,300 American factory workers.
This year, GM is stopping production at four American plants, including Detroit-Hamtramck and Warren Transmission in Michigan, Lordstown Assembly in Ohio, and Baltimore Operations in Maryland. This comes after GM laid off about 1,500 American workers in Lordstown in 2018, while their Mexico production remained unaffected.
Online, American workers experiencing the layoffs are detailing what they are witnessing. A U.S. worker posted about the layoffs at GM’s corporate office in Roswell, Georgia:
Half of Team let go so far. Our team had 25-30 people. So far our 2 managers, all our senior devs, and a handful of NCGs have been let go. A few other key people in our space have been let go as well. We are pretty sure they are dropping our whole org.
One U.S. worker at GM’s Detroit, Michigan Renaissance Center wrote that about 15 employees had been fired all at once in a meeting room nearby. Another worker replied to the post, “Yes. I was one of them.”
A number of U.S. workers at GM said the corporation increased security at all facilities and offices where layoffs are occurring in order to escort those being laid off out of the area.
“Is there really a need for more security? I find that the whole increased security thing is a major overreaction on part of GM,” a U.S. worker posted. “What is it they expect us to do exactly? It just seems like adding insult to injury.”
Similarly, laid-off American workers posted their frustrations that despite their decades-long loyalty to GM, the loyalty was not returned despite the federal government and U.S. taxpayers bailing out the corporation to the sum of more than $13 billion in 2008.
“Loyalty means nothing to GM anymore,” a U.S. worker wrote. “Two decades count for nothing … Escorted out like common criminal … I was naive enough to think I was safe.”
“I was just laid off, promptly escorted off the property, I’ve spent 18 years with GM and all gone in a snap,” a U.S. worker at GM’s Grand Blanc Township, Michigan office wrote, continuing:
I was one of those that was escorted out and I asked why. No answer could be provided other than a vague: It’s a rough decision, business reasons, nothing personal. I always had great performance reviews, I knew nobody was safe but I was not expecting this.Some people let go today had over 20 years with General Motors. It’s sad. It’s the end of the road here. I hope I bounce back quickly but I was 1000% invested in GM (professionally, emotionally and financially – this will change now).
A U.S. worker at GM’s Warren Tech Center in Warren, Michigan wrote that he was the “last man standing” of his “entire project team.”
“The entire project team I am on was walked out one at a time today,” he wrote. “Just waiting for my cardboard box. I wish my name had come up sooner so I could be enjoying a beer now.”
Another worker in Warren, Michigan wrote that he was called into a conference room two hours before posting about the layoff online. He said GM managers and human resource executives had him “sign a separation agreement” before being given his severance package.
“Whole thing only took about 20 minutes,” he wrote. “Turned in my laptop and badge and headed straight to the closest bar. Had lunch now am drinking heavily. Expect to stay here until they close. Turned off my phone. Not a good day.”
Some speculated why the layoffs were occurring at the beginning of February.
“I noticed in the paper it said GM wanted to do this before the quarterly earnings were released,” a U.S. worker posted. “I bet they had a really good quarter and it would have looked really bad for them to release all of these people which at the same time reporting big profits.”
Others slammed GM CEO Mary Barra who has continued raking in about $22 million a year despite laying off thousands of Americans and outsourcing production to China and Mexico.
“The actions from the top are SICKENING! Where is [Mary Barra] today? Come and get a front row seat for your ‘show,'” a U.S. worker wrote. “Open seating, escorting people to [conference] rooms, buses, metro cars escorting people out. Sad and sick. This MASS termination could have been prevented. [Mary Barra] needs to STEP DOWN!!! Don’t preach integrity [Mary Barra]. Don’t ask for people to work casual overtime. Same as 2008, this could have been handled in a better way.”
A U.S. worker who started at GM in 2000 in his early 20’s recalled how the corporate culture had dramatically changed and how he would miss his job after being laid off.
When I started out it was the year 2000, I was a technician and listened carefully to the engineering teams that had the experience and expertise, that is how I learned, by closing my mouth.Also learning from the other technicians that were around my age or a bit older than me. I had a lot of respect for all of the engineering guys and the stories they had, almost all of them drag racers or one guy was a cheif engineer and broke land speed records at Bonnevilles salt flats, I was 24 at the time and I have fond memories from those days.My experience is you really have to ignore all of the distractions going on in the company and keep your nose to the grindstone, anything else is just wasted energy. Listen to everyone of all ages, I’m a car guy and passionate about automotive, listening to the guys and the stories they had from all age groups really lit the fire for me.I’m in my 40s now, GM is what I basically grew up with and now I’m out of a job for the first time in my life, I hate it because I’ve never not worked. Point is no one is safe no matter how good you are, we all know that there is no guarantee in life, it’s a crapshoot, I miss my work a lot and this just sucks big time. I made it through the bankruptcy in [2008] but this time not so lucky.
While GM lays off thousands of American workers, its production in Mexico and China is ramping up. Specifically, GM is looking to manufacture an electric Cadillac in China and continue manufacturing its Envision compact vehicle in China.
The made-in-Mexico Chevrolet Blazer will soon arrive in U.S. markets. Last year, GM became the largest automaker in Mexico last year as it has cut jobs in America and increased production to Mexico.
Offshoring production out of the U.S. to Mexico has proven cheaper for GM executives, as American workers earn $30 an hour while Mexican workers earn about $3 an hour, a 90 percent cut to wages that widens the corporation’s profit margins.
The United Auto Workers (UAW) union is now urging American consumers to boycott GM vehicles that are manufactured in Mexico, noting that such products’ Vehicle Identification Numbers (VIN) begin with the number “3.”
“Companies like General Motors have an obligation to build where they sell and stop exporting jobs abroad,” UAW President Gary Jones said in a statement. “After all, we invested in General Motors in their darkest days. Now they need to invest in us.”
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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