General Motors Announces 5 Plant Closures, 14,000+ Layoffs

The Chicago Tribune is reporting General Motors, the largest automaker in the United States, will be laying off 14,500 factory and white-collar workers.

In addition, five plants will be closed during a 2019 company restructuring.

The reduction includes 8,100 white-collar workers, some of whom will take buyouts and others who will be laid off. Most of the affected factories build cars that won't be sold in the U.S. after next year. They could close or they could get different vehicles to build. They will be part of contract talks with the United Auto Workers union next year.

The four factories in the U.S. and one in Canada could be shuttered by the end of 2019 if the automaker and its unions don't come up with an agreement to allocate more work to those facilities, GM said in a statement Monday.

Plants without products include assembly plants in Detroit; Lordstown, Ohio; and Oshawa, Ontario. Also affected are transmission factories in Warren, Mich., as well as Baltimore.

More than 6,000 factory workers could lose jobs in the U.S. and Canada, although some could transfer to truck and SUV plants.

The cuts represent 15% of GM's work force.

The timing could prove problematic for Donald "I Create Jobs" Trump as he enters the 2020 campaign cycle.

According to the Chicago Tribune, the closures will save $6 billion in cash by the end of next year.

This is all in addition to the $6.5 billion in cuts already announced for the end of this year.

#SoMuchWinning

General Motors plans to halt production at 3 assembly plants in Canada, Ohio, and Michigan by not allocating new products, Reuters reports.

Cost pressures have increased. GM also has said Trump-imposed tariffs on imported steel have cost it $1 billion.https://t.co/h2Bzl0DlAM

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 26, 2018

BREAKING: trump's tariffs on steel causing General Motors to lose $1B, now they'll layoff 14,000 jobs in North America.

Can someone PLEASE explain how this equals #winning? https://t.co/FgBpDrUkF1

— BrooklynDad_Defiant! (@mmpadellan) November 26, 2018

Trump, July 2017: people in Youngstown, Ohio worried about the city's General Motors plant will be fine!

Today: General Motors is closing its Youngstown, Ohio plant partly due to Trump's trade war.

— Pé Resists (@4everNeverTrump) November 26, 2018

Trump Threatens General Motors With "Big Border Tax"

Just as he promised throughout the campaign, Donald Trump is beginning to threaten American companies that move jobs abroad by slapping them with a "big border tax" along the lines of 35% on imported goods.

Via Politico:

General Motors is the latest target of President-elect Donald Trump’s Twitter cannon, with the Manhattan billionaire complaining that the American automaker is manufacturing cars in Mexico and importing them into the U.S. without penalty. “General Motors is sending Mexican made model of Chevy Cruze to U.S. car dealers-tax free across border. Make in U.S.A. or pay big border tax!” Trump wrote on Twitter Tuesday morning.

General Motors issued a statement in response regarding it's manufacturing of the Chevy Cruze:

General Motors disputed the facts in Donald Trump’s Tuesday morning attack on the automaker, saying it makes most of its Chevy Cruze models in the United States. The company said in a statement that “all Chevrolet Cruze sedans sold in the U.S.” are made at an assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio. It clarified that it builds hatchback models for global markets in Mexico, “with a small number sold in the U.S.”

Free trade agreements, including NAFTA, were constant targets of Trump on the campaign trail.