GM To Cut 14,000 Jobs in Ohio and Michigan
by John Lawrence, December 5, 2018
Oh, what tangled webs we weave. One of them is US trade policy. Trump is loading up China with tariffs so GM decided to shut down production in the US and move those jobs to China. Why? Because GM sells more cars in China than it does in the US. It is a global enterprise with production facilities all over the world. So rather than make the cars in the US and export them to China, they will make them in China and sell them in China in order to escape the tariffs that China has imposed on aluminum and steel in retaliation to Trump's tariffs. Make sense?
GM is discontinuing some sedan models as the market is shifting towards trucks and SUVs and away from sedans. It is discontinuing the Cruze, Volt and Impala. Ford may follow suit so the layoffs may continue. Vox reported:
The exportation of work on small cars, like sedans, was a concern for some economists when the new US-Mexico-Canada trade bill was signed earlier this year. According to the Washington Post, there were also concerns “that automakers might not make as many cars in North America to export to China and elsewhere overseas because costs would be higher in the USMCA region than making the vehicles in Asia.”
The types of changes GM is making are not unique in the auto industry. In April, Ford announced it would end all production of sedans in North America. Newer companies such as Alphabet, Apple, Tesla, and Uber are also in the race, trying to build the cars of the future.
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) expressed his disappointment in GM’s decision, tweeting that “Ohio taxpayers rescued GM, and it’s shameful that the company is now abandoning the Mahoning Valley and laying off workers right before the holidays.”
Yes, remember when US taxpayers bailed out GM during the Obama administration? Some wanted GM to go bankrupt, but Obama decided to save GM. Now that it's profitable again, it has demonstrated that it has no regard for American workers, only for corporate profits. It has no allegiance to the US or its taxpayers, only to its shareholders. Trump has let the genie out of the bottle. Now let's see if he can get those 14,000 worker/voters back into the Republican camp ... the ones that GM recently "let go."
