GM to Cut 30,000 Jobs and Close 12 Plants
 

This is an amazing thing to me. :(

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...home-headlines

from the article:
GM, whose nameplates include Chevrolet, Buick, Saturn, Hummer and Pontiac, said it would close assembly plants in Oklahoma City, Lansing, Mich., and Doraville, Ga., along with one of its plants in Oshawa, Canada. GM also is closing one of two assembly lines at its Spring Hill, Tenn., plant, which makes Saturn vehicles, and eliminating shifts at its Moraine, Ohio, assembly plant, and at a second assembly plant in Oshawa.

Other closures and production cuts affected powertrain, stamping and other types of facilities in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Missouri and Canada.

GM is not the only company that will be closing plants. Ford is not too far behind. This is really sad. People don't understand how this affects all of us. Auto plant workers make an average of 65K a year. These big companies are opting to move plants to Mexico and Canada. That's revenue leaving our communities meaning other local businesses will not get patronized and they too have a risk of clasping. Delta airlines is trying to renege on the pilot’s contract which I don't understand why the courts are evening entertaining this attempt. Let me try to renege on my SUV contract, the repo man will be snatch it like a thief in the night. I say all this because it appears to me that the middle class is being wiped out.

Sorry I gotta refute this part - Oshawa up here is facing 16000 jobs cut with the latest GM closings... not even being rated the most effecient or best in quality seemed to save the plant or the workers.

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That's revenue leaving our communities meaning other local businesses will not get patronized and they too have a risk of clasping. Delta airlines is trying to renege on the pilot�s contract which I don't understand why the courts are evening entertaining this attempt. Let me try to renege on my SUV contract, the repo man will be snatch it like a thief in the night. I say all this because it appears to me that the middle class is being wiped out.

Unfortuantely even in business politics plays a big part - GM has been bleeding tens of millions of dollars for a couple of years trying to maintain production levels despite decreasing demand - but now they need to slash costs to save the company. Reducing the not only salary payments but health benifits is a way to save millions if not a billion dollars for GM; which is the reasoning behind many of the closings and job cuts... of course it strikes kinda hollow up here when GM doesn't pay the health benifits but the government does... anyways in order for the cuts to go down a little easier GM has to be shown to be cutting some jobs and closing plants across the board in order to appease the UAW - so Oshawa gets the axe even though they are the most cost efficient and productive plant in North America (amongst all the auto manufacturers).

Oh I agree 1,000 % with you on the most efficient or best in quality seemed not to save the plant or the workers. Give you an example Ford will announce their financial restructuring in January 06 which also includes closing plants. Atlanta Hapeville is on the list of choices but it has not been finalized. Hapeville has gotten excellent reviews compared to the other plants it's up against but as you said "politics" will place Hapeville behind the 8 ball. I really hope Hapeville doesn't close. The GM Doraville, GA (Atlanta) Plant is closing in 08 and Hapeville closing will hurt Atlanta esp Fulton County. All of this still boils down to the low man on the totem poll suffering figuring out how are they going to support their family, other community businesses not being patronized and your big time execs still having their golden Para shoots.

SUV contract and Delta pilots contract: not even close to being the same thing. You signed the SUV contract for goods you have already received. The Delta pilot contract is based on projections. The company is in bankrupcy, and the pilots, who are the highest paid in the industry, don't want to make concessions?? I understand they are pissed about the golden parachutes and "stay" bonuses that were given to sr. exec who were helping to run the company in the ground, but fighting with the bankrupcy judge may not be the best way to go.

The GM thing is really sad, but the reality of it is that many of the long term factory employees are no longer just middle class--they are probably considered more upper middle class. Making 60K or 70K to screw bolts in a car especially where there are others that can do it better and for less?

The Doraville plant is a staple in the Atlanta area (just like the Ford Hapeville plant), but people are already salivating over the real estate because it is is a prime location.

A lot of people have no clue what it is like to work in an auto manufacturing plant. They see a few news clips and assume that the jobs are easy. Nothing can be further from the truth. Many people quit after a few days of working there. You can go ahead and believe that people can build better cars at lower pay if you want. But the fact remains that GM Ford and DC all top out the same $26 per hour, Toyota and Honda both tops out at $25. As far as being considered upper middle class, if they lose their jobs, they will be in the rapidly growing lower class. The point of this is it is not easy work that everyone is capable of doing. Does the term “repetitive strain injury” mean anything? Building several hundred cars per day, year in and out eventually something is going to give, and it is usually the worker. That is why autoworkers have the health care benefits that are currently under attack. At a time when the big 3 did not offer any raises, they countered with the offer of paid healthcare, and profit sharing. Now decades later with the out of control costs of healthcare, is it the workers fault that these companies are in the situation that they are in? Everyone is quick to blame the workers and call them greedy, when all that the workers want is for the companies to stand by the agreements that they have already made.

As far as Delta reneging on the pilot’s contract, they have already taken several pay cuts, and now the company wants to throw out their contract?? When ever you enter a contract regardless if it is for a car, house, or labor, you are bound by that agreement for its duration. If you agree to hire someone at a set pay scale, and then 2 years into a four year contract you want to make changes in that contract because you aren’t meeting your sales projections then you need to change your sales projections. A contract signed in good faith is bound by law.

What saddens me about this is that blue-collar, high-paying manufacturing jobs historically have helped AfAms, in particular, crack a middle-class lifestyle. In view of the disappearance of such gigs, this is why education is so critical.

Never said the job was easy, I know it must be backbreaking work. Shoot, I interviewed for an HR job at a Honda plant and it was too much for me! I did not want to wear that ugly white uniform and be so structured. You can also get carpal (sp?) tunnel from production type data entry, but that does not mean that those people need to make $26 hour for doing so. I know it is not fair to lay everything at the feet of the worker. One thing that the Japanese does do right is level out salaries. While the highest GM exec is probably making 1,000 times what the lowest assembly line worker is making, salaries are much 'flatter" at Japanese manufacturers. When I interviewed for the job at Honda I could not believe that all administrative/professional workers were in the same room, at the same type desks with no cube divisions or doors or anything--even the president of the plant! He was just over in a corner. I bet if you went to GM a regular worker could not even go on the exec floor and I am sure the carpet, furniture, etc. let you know you were in rarified air.


All contracts can be renegotiated.

Yes, contracts can be renogotiated once the contract is at the END of it's duration. While carpal tunnel is potentaily devestating it pails in comparisson to repetitive strain injury.

About the only thing going for those threatened up her in Oshawa is that Honda and Saturn are already headhunting once the cuts were announced... but yeah if the cuts go through I wouldn't be surprised if those hardest hit are the "minorities".