As I think back over the jobs history in the USA over the last many
decades it is nothing new at all that the basic story is "screw the
underlings" and you can put all of the blame on the backs of CEOs/rich
_AND_ the exchange rates. However, if you are willing to look at ALL
of the news instead of JUST the bad news, then the net picture is not
so bad. I still want to go on record that I have nothing against 3rd
worlds bootstraping themselves out of poverty, but not by moving jobs
from the US to the 3rd world, and not by making the poor, poorer and
the rich, richer.
---- no change to below -------
On Apr 29, 12:43 am, visualseep...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:
> this is where the supposed profits come from
>
> ---------------------
>
> GM to lay off 3,500 at 4 pickup truck and SUV factories
> Monday April 28, 6:57 pm ET
> By Tom Krisher, AP Auto Writer
>
> GM to lay off 3,500 by axing 1 shift each at 4 pickup, large SUV
> factories due to weak sales
>
> DETROIT (AP) -- Sagging pickup truck and sport utility vehicle sales
> have forced General Motors Corp. to shut down one shift each at four
> North American factories and lay off about 3,500 workers.
> The world's largest automaker by sales said Monday that the cuts, to
> take effect starting this summer, were brought on by weak demand due
> to high gasoline prices and an economic downturn.
>
> The cuts will affect pickup factories in Pontiac and Flint, Mich., and
> Oshawa, Ontario, as well as the full-size SUV plant in Janesville,
> Wis. The layoffs represent just over 4 percent of GM's hourly
> manufacturing work force of about 80,000 in North America.
>
> The company said the cuts mean it will make about 88,000 fewer pickups
> and 50,000 fewer large SUVs this calendar year.
>
> GM said the exact number of layoffs will be worked out with its
> unions. Workers will get unemployment benefits and supplemental pay
> that total 80 percent of their normal 40-hour gross pay, said GM
> spokesman Dan Flores.
>
> "With rising fuel prices, a softening economy and a downward trend on
> current and future market demand for full-size trucks, a significant
> adjustment was needed to align our production with market realities,"
> GM North America President Troy Clarke said in a statement.
>
> For about the past three years, the U.S. auto market has been shifting
> away from pickup trucks and SUVs to cars and crossover vehicles, but
> the trend accelerated in recent months due to gas prices that have
> topped $3.50 per gallon across the nation.
>
> The company expects the layoffs to take place starting July 14 at the
> Flint, Janesville and Pontiac plants, and Sept. 8 at Oshawa. Most of
> the factories had already seen layoffs and production cuts due to a
> parts shortage from a two-month strike at American Axle and
> Manufacturing Holdings Inc.
>
> GM spokesman Tony Sapienza said the company will eliminate shifts with
> 750 workers each at Flint and Janesville, 1,150 workers in Pontiac and
> 900 workers in Oshawa.
>
> "Those are the people that we believe will be impacted based on what
> the shifts are," he said. "We'll be working with our partners to
> determine how that's brought to fruition."
>
> Greg Gardner, an analyst with the Oliver Wyman Group, said the cuts
> look like "a realistic assessment."
>
> "The full-size pickup and SUV market is not going to rebound anytime
> soon," he said. "It looks like that they don't plan on making up very
> much of the production loss due to the American Axle strike."
>
> Gardner said GM's announcement reflects the industry's overall
> production forecast this year, down to about 15 million light vehicles
> from an earlier forecast of 15.5 million.
>
> "Obviously, the larger, heavier vehicles are taking the biggest hit,"
> he said.
>
> The Flint, Pontiac and Oshawa plants make the Chevrolet Silverado and
> GMC Sierra pickups, while Janesville manufactures the Chevrolet Tahoe
> and Suburban and GMC Yukon big SUVs.
>
> GM said pickup sales overall are down 15 percent through March, while
> sales of large SUVs are off 26 percent. Dealers in much of the country
> say the bigger vehicles aren't selling because of the economy and
> gasoline prices.
>
> George Tasker, the top salesman at Martin Chevrolet in Torrance,
> Calif., said buyers are sitting on the sidelines for most vehicles
> mainly due to economic uncertainty and declining home values.
>
> "Everybody's going to drive a little bit longer until we can figure
> out where this thing is going," he said.
>
> Los Angeles-area dealers still can get just about any truck or SUV a
> customer wants by trading with each other, despite curtailed
> production from the American Axle strike, he said.
>
> Jesse Toprak, chief industry analyst for the auto information site
> Edmunds.com, said GM has a 92-day average supply of large trucks. A 60-
> day supply is considered optimal in the business.
>
> He said the automaker will lose about $4.4 billion in gross sales
> because of the production cuts, but it's nearly impossible to
> determine the impact on GM's net profits.
>
> The production cuts should help GM keep its inventory under control,
> said Catherine Madden, an analyst with the consulting firm Global
> Insight.
>
> "They're not going to put themselves in a position where they're going
> to overbuild and sell at any costs," she said.
>
> "They take the hit now instead of being forced with their back up
> against the wall in September."
>
> GM said it did not forecast how many of those vehicles it expected to
> make this year, but it sold about 1.1 million of them in the U.S. last
> year, according to Autodata Corp.
>
> The announcement was made after the close of regular trading. GM
> shares gained 56 cents, or 2.6 percent, to close at $21.94, and were
> unchanged in after-hours trading.
>
> The cuts come as 74,000 U.S. workers represented by the United Auto
> Workers face a May 22 deadline to decide on GM's latest round of
> buyout and early retirement offers.
>
> GM won't say how many workers it hopes to shed, but under its new
> contract with the UAW, it will be able to replace up to 16,000 workers
> doing nonassembly jobs with new employees who will be paid half the
> old wage of $28 per hour.
>
> AP Business Writer Jeff Karoub contributed to this report.
>
> On Apr 24, 1:48 pm, Stray Dog <straydog2...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
|
