GM Layoffs Leave Workers Distraught, Angry: 14,000 Jobs OH, MI, MD, ONT
"A Kick In The Stomach': Massive GM Layoffs Leave Workers Distraught- And Angry." Lordstown, Ohio, was defined by its General Motors plant. Now workers say job cuts threaten the lives they’ve built. The Guardian, 12/27/18. EXCERPTS:
Ever since the US’s largest car company’s immense assembly plant opened here 52 years ago, it has dominated this blue-collar town. Now GM workers here are furious that the automaker plans to idle – and perhaps permanently close – the plant. GM stunned its workforce on 26 November, the Monday after Thanksgiving, by announcing it would cut roughly 14,000 jobs and idle five factories in North America, including the Lordstown OH plant, which employs 1,600 workers.
While some have blamed Trump policies for the closure, or at least for his inability to stop them, it’s the company that workers hold most responsible. "This is devastating. This is our livelihood,” said Stephanie Allein, 40. "When I came here (in 2010) there was this feeling this plant has been around forever, it wasn’t going anywhere. You felt a security coming here. People bought houses.”
The Ohio facility occupies over 900 acres and has produced more than 16m vehicles, incl. Pontiac Firebirds and Chevy Cavaliers & Vegas. Last year, it generated $250m in wages, money that was the engine of Lordstown’s economy.
GM’s decision left people fuming, but not without hope, because it didn’t say the plant was closing. Rather, it said the plant was “unallocated”. That day, GM announced it was ending production of the Chevy Cruze in the US – that’s the car the Lordstown plant makes (although GM will continue to produce the Cruze in Mexico along with several crossover vehicles). GM was responding to a slowdown in sales of smaller cars, like the Cruze, and to Trump’s easing fuel economy standards, a move making it easier for automakers to focus on producing larger cars and trucks.
GM said it was idling Lordstown and four other plants – in Detroit; Baltimore; Warren, Michigan; and Oshawa, Ontario – to cut costs and free up money to invest in electric and autonomous cars. The Lordstown workers hope GM will opt to assemble another car, perhaps an electric car, here. “We should be building the next-generation car here,” Allein said. “We should be building the crossovers here, not in Mexico.”...
MORE, https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/dec/27/general-motors-ohio-auto-car-layoffs
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