Car company sacks 14,000 people before Christmas

Heartbreaking photos show employees in tears and incredulous after the announcement made Monday, just before the holiday season.

Up to seven plants will close, directly affecting some 14,500 workers in the United States and Canada.

This comes after GM made the decision to cut its workforce by 15% to save $ 6 billion and adapt to "changing market conditions" – abandoning many of its automotive models and restructurings for focus more on trucks, SUVs and electric vehicles.

The last time that he experienced a significant reduction in his workforce, the removal of thousands of jobs occurred during the Great Recession.

According to Itay Michaeli, an badyst at Citi, the auto giant is getting rid of its cars largely because they bring nothing to them. Dallas News reported.

"We believe that sedans operate with a significant loss, hence the need for a clbadic restructuring," he wrote in a note to investors.

The layoff left thousands of employees clueless.

"I do not know how I'm going to feed my family," said Matt Smith, a worker at the Ontario plant Dallas News Monday, in front of the south gate of the factory, where the workers prevented the trucks from entering or leaving. "It's hard, it's horrible."

Mr. Smith's wife is also working at the plant. The couple has an 11 month old baby.

Another GM worker was outraged, telling Today & # 39; hui: "You go directly to Christmas. You are looking for the party and it is not there for the moment. "

A worker talked about a workplace where people were "screaming with their eyes. I have never seen anything like it and we get no answer. "

President Donald Trump has attacked the automaker, threatening to remove all GM subsidies – his stock has shrunk by nearly 3 percent, CNN said.

"Very disappointed with General Motors and their CEO, Mary Barra, for closing factories in Ohio, Michigan, and Maryland," tweeted Trump on Tuesday after the big announcement. "We are now considering removing all @GM subsidies, including for electric cars."

It is unclear which grants Trump was referring to.

A person familiar with the case told CNN Business that GM was unaware of any significant federal subsidy that the company would receive beyond an additional tax credit. $ 7,500 for the consumer, not the corporation.

In order to "protect American workers," Trump then tweeted, "… for electric cars. General Motors made a big bet in China a few years ago, when they built factories there (and Mexico) – do not believe this bet will pay off. "

China has become an increasingly important market for the automaker and, in the first nine months of 2018, it has sold 2.7 million cars in China, compared with 2.6 million in the whole of North America.

The spokeswoman, Julie Huston-Rough, however, denied these accusations, saying to AFP that "these products will not be manufactured elsewhere, in the North American market".

The layoffs have a direct bearing on the promise of Trump's 2016 election campaign to revitalize job creation in the US industrial center and promote domestic auto manufacturing.

This comes in the context of trade wars between the United States, China and Europe that will likely result in higher prices for vehicles imported and exported from the United States. Dallas News reported.

Mary Barra, CEO of GM, said the company was facing pricing problems but that she had not directly badociated the layoffs with these layoffs.

The removal of GM's current workforce of 180,000 will particularly affect the politically crucial regions of Ohio and Michigan, a region that Trump has promised to revive.

Trump said he was "very tough" with Barra after discussing the reorganization following Monday's announcement of the closure of badembly and production plants.

"I was very hard. I spoke with her when I heard that they were shutting down and I said, you know, this country did a lot for General Motors, "said Trump, referring to the Federal bailout of the company after the 2008 financial crash, adding that "the United States has saved General Motors and it's not good for it to pull this company out of Ohio." ".

Workers at the Ontario factory in Canada have organized a wildcat strike to protest the closure and thousands continue to demand answers, Barra said in a statement:

"The actions we take today continue our transformation to become very agile, resilient and profitable, while giving us the opportunity to invest in the future."

"We recognize the need to keep up with changing market conditions and customer preferences in order to position our company for long-term success.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also took into account the announcement of the shock: "We will support Canadian auto workers and their families affected by GM's plan to close their plant in Oshawa next year," said Mr. Trudeau in a tweet.

He also revealed that he had discussed with Mr. Trump the best way to support those affected on both sides of the border.

"We will continue to work to remove barriers to trade by heading to the @ G20org summit this week," said Trudeau.

Jerry Dias, president of Unifor, the Canadian union of workers, said he "will be fighting vigorously to keep these high-paying jobs in the auto sector."

The job cuts will include a 25% reduction in the number of employees at the management level to "streamline decision-making," the company said.

The factories will be officially closed by the end of 2019, but workers will gradually lose their jobs, some as of the new year.

Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio, hailed GM's decision as "Corporate Greed" and also made a gesture in the Trump-sponsored 2017 tax cut that was introduced as a job winner.

"The company has benefited from considerable tax relief compared to last year's GOP tax bill and has not invested this money in US jobs," Brown said on Twitter.

UAW, the car workers union, criticized GM's decision, saying the company was simply looking for cheaper workers and had sworn to retaliate.

"This ruthless decision by GM to reduce or cease operations in US factories, while opening or increasing the production of factories in Mexico and China for sales to US consumers, is, in its implementation , deeply detrimental to our American workforce, "said UAW vice president, Terry Dittes told me.