GM Layoffs

[White Out 403]

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/26/busin...ant/index.html

So much for the tax cuts hey?

Seriously though this is where consumers need to step up. If a company like GM, making billions in profits, can shut down plants in North America and move jobs to Mexico to save money, we as consumers need to punish them with our wallets to a) see if it can be reversed or at least b) dissuade other business from wrecking thousands of families to squeeze more profits and share holder value.

This level of corporate greed is incredible.

[HockeyIlliterate]

Isn’t GM shutting down some of the plants because consumers are voting with their wallets and no longer buying GM cars?

[Weitz]

Why should they keep open if the cars aren’t selling and want to go in a new direction?

Because some people work there?

[White Out 403]

Originally Posted by HockeyIlliterate

Isn’t GM shutting down some of the plants because consumers are voting with their wallets and no longer buying GM cars?

No, they're moving the manufacturing to Mexico.

Originally Posted by Weitz

Why should they keep open if the cars aren’t selling and want to go in a new direction?

Because some people work there?

They can re-purpose the plant to sell the new types of vehicles they want to make in Mexico.

Wow, not a lot of compassion for your fellow Canadian worker and family I see.

[GullFoss]

Maybe these workers will do what many across the country have done for the past two decades and find good fly-in, fly-out blue collar jobs in the oil patch. No wait...

[PaperBagger'14]

I feel for these families but I understand why manufacturing jobs are being outsourced. It's well within a company's right to direct their business in their own best interest. Its ####ty all around but Canada is not a good place for companies to invest and operate in currently.

[DiracSpike]

Originally Posted by White Out 403

No, they're moving the manufacturing to Mexico.



They can re-purpose the plant to sell the new types of vehicles they want to make in Mexico.

Wow, not a lot of compassion for your fellow Canadian worker and family I see.

I think everyone here is compassionate about people losing their jobs, that sucks for the people there and I feel bad for them. It's just that government doesn't really have the power to force GM to stay here and manufacture cars, there's greater forces at work. That's in contrast to the oil differential crisis here that is 100% Government caused.

[White Out 403]

Originally Posted by PaperBagger'14

I feel for these families but I understand why manufacturing jobs are being outsourced. It's well within a company's right to direct their business in their own best interest. Its ####ty all around but Canada is not a good place for companies to invest and operate in currently.

Yes, it's definitely in their rights of course. But let's be honest. The company is very profitable, and just accepted a bunch of tax benefits they used to buy back stocks to further jack up their value.

It's our right as consumer to say, "You know what, you shouldn't be throwing people out on the street to boost shareholder value and we won't shop with you". This isn't about forcing GM to be unprofitable to keep Canadians employed. They're choosing to be even more profitable at the expense of decent paying jobs in the States and Canada, where consumers buy their product. If we as a consumer group don't care and let them do it, then no ones job is safe.

I realize CP is the land of 1%ers though.

[Peanut]

Corporations are slaves to the stock performance. They won’t hesitate to make these moves if it helps them meet targets for the next quarter or next year(s) or whatever. Anyways I’ve never bought a GM in my life, and wasn’t planning to start.

[81MC]

I have absolutely no faith that society would ever change its spending habits to support a cause it doesn’t reap the immediate benefits of. Vehicles could be made by slaves with no rights whatsoever, and they will sell if the market likes their product. Any semblance of pride or support for the national worker went out the window when people accepted cheaper as better.

[Shazam]

Jaguar has a manufacturing plant that employs about 17 workers.

Let's not act too stunned.

[dino7c]

automation

[Northendzone]

I had to shake my head at the bitter irony of gum stock price increasing today....gm is also closing 4 or 5 plants in the us as well.

To me the interesting thing to watch will be how Trudeau handles this “crisis”. Does he try and give GM money to induce them to change their mind? If he does, he may as well not waste time ever coming back to Alberta, not that we really have a huge impact on the election.

I am assuming that the pipeline haters are rejoicing at the death knell for carbon powered vehicles.....

[Dion]

Corporations need to adapt to the changing markets if they have any hopes of surviving. Sometimes it means downsizing, closing plants and laying off employees. Not just those in the union but the higher up executives also.

Production at the plant was dropping over the years and it was being underutilized. They say it was only a matter of time before it was closed. It appears to me that GM was being proactive in an attempt to avoid another bankruptcy as opposed to scrambling afterwards.

Maybe the alternative is to retool the plant to focus on the production of SUV's that consumers seem focused on.

[guzzy]

Originally Posted by White Out 403

No, they're moving the manufacturing to Mexico.



They can re-purpose the plant to sell the new types of vehicles they want to make in Mexico.

Wow, not a lot of compassion for your fellow Canadian worker and family I see.

No. There are only two cars that are made in Oshawa. They are both being discontinued next year. The trend is moving to SUV and CUVs.

[burn_this_city]

GM spent $400M upgrading the Oshawa plant in 2016 to finish pickups and keep the line going there. For whatever reason despite that investment they don't think it makes financial sense to keep that plant running. It's no secret that Canada is the highest cost environment in North America. We can't compete with a combination of lower wages and taxes seen in Mexico and the US.

The car markers also seem to believe that they are going to see a decrease in vehicle demand over the coming years. SUVs and pickups might be doing well right now, but the industry thinks EVs and ride sharing are the future.

[billybob123]

Originally Posted by White Out 403

No, they're moving the manufacturing to Mexico.

Like guzzy said above, they currently manufacture the Impala in Oshawa and are canceling the model along with the Volt, Cruze, LaCrosse, and the XTS and CT6. Some production of the Cruze may be done elsewhere but not the Impala. They are also closing four plants in the US (two in Michigan, one in Ohio, and one in Maryland).

https://driving.ca/chevrolet/volt/au...-lacrosse-cars

Has nothing to do with moving production to Mexico.

It's frustrating as a car guy that no one wants to make cars anymore. I will never buy a cuv or suv. I'd rather drive a van but even at that I can still get my kids in the car and all the stuff I need into the trunk of either of my cars. Am I alone I this?

My daily driver is a model that is no longer manufactured by a company that has also essentially abandoned car building in favour of pickup trucks and suv. Maybe this should go in the RGMG thread.

ETA the Oshawa plant also makes the XTS (does anyone actually buy these? I don't think I've ever seen one on the road) and used to make the Buick Regal, which is now built in Germany. It's an Opel car, so not suprirising they build in Germany.

[Baron von Kriterium]

Originally Posted by billybob123

It's frustrating as a car guy that no one wants to make cars anymore. I will never buy a cuv or suv. Am I alone I this?

I'm with you. I still drive my '04 TSX and I'm seriously considering buying another one of that vintage and store it in my mom's garage. I do not like the new cars and the SUVs even less. They all look the same.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

GM spent $400M upgrading the Oshawa plant in 2016 to finish pickups and keep the line going there. For whatever reason despite that investment they don't think it makes financial sense to keep that plant running. It's no secret that Canada is the highest cost environment in North America. We can't compete with a combination of lower wages and taxes seen in Mexico and the US.

The car markers also seem to believe that they are going to see a decrease in vehicle demand over the coming years. SUVs and pickups might be doing well right now, but the industry thinks EVs and ride sharing are the future.

Do you think that part of the decision to close Oshawa was political too? Closing 4 plants in the U.S. is already going to hurt their image in that market (their biggest market). But by closing Oshawa, they are at least distributing some of that pain outside of the U.S.

This is really sad news, especially as a former Oshawa resident. But I see this as a sign of the industry changing. Their decision wasn't just about where to let jobs go, but also how to strategically place themselves in a changing market.

I don't know a tonne about the auto industry, and probably showing that by asking this, but would it make economic sense for an Asian auto company like Nissan (who I heard is killing it these days) to buy the plant and set up in Canada and offset the production costs by having smaller import costs? I know they have one assembly plant in the U.S., but I think that is it. Or maybe a company like Tata Motors that is growing fast and looking for new markets?

[burn_this_city]

They are getting hammered with the steel and aluminum tariffs and had to ditch the unprofitable vehicles and plants. They were hauling 3/4 complete trucks from Indiana up to Oshawa to finish and I can't imagine that was saving money. It probably boiled down to which plants made the models and parts they were ditching or cost the most to retool. At least Oshawa has proximity to Toronto, some of the other towns in the US are losing the largest employer. Trump saving US Steel has probably cost more jobs than people comprehend.