Posted on 04/22/2009 2:37:36 PM PDT by Joiseydude
DETROIT -- Two people briefed on the plan say General Motors Corp. will close most of its U.S. factories for up to nine weeks this summer because of slumping sales and growing inventories of unsold vehicles.
The people did not know exactly when the shutdowns would occur, but both say they will include the normal two-week closure in July to change from one model year to the next. Neither person wanted to be identified because workers have not been told of the shutdowns.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
Imagine the unions will make sure the employees get paid generously as they always do during a strike as I recall.
Do they get paid unemployment compensation, such as in some layoffs?
A definite redefinition of business as we know it.
Yep, this will be a 9 week paid vacation for most of the Union employees. I want to sign up for that gig!
This is a good move for GM and should not be a surprise to anyone.
I believe they continue to get paid with benefits. I read today that the bailout money is being used to pay lobbyists.
It's a lot less than the banks are currently living off of.
Bankers somehow hold a place dearer in your heart then assembly line guys?
Well, for those that argue we can’t afford to let GM go out of business, we are going to soon find out. The ripple effect will be fully felt with a 9 week lay-off. It will be interesting how much stress this puts on the larger economy.
I imagine it will be a large hit as I would expect suppliers to follow GM’s lead.
No. But, some of the banks are now profitable. It's not completely unreasonable to believe some or even most of that money will be recouped. I'm not happy about the bailouts, any of them. But, at least with the banks, there's an end in sight.
With the auto bailouts, it's just bad money after really bad money.
Suppliers and service providers. The loss of revenue for the transportation companies is going to be immense. Like I said, it will be interesting to watch. I don't see how the economy can begin to recover by the fourth quarter, as some have predicted, with this layoff.
Take 9 weeks off and then give it up completely.
Every tax payer in getting hosed. Lay them off now. Stop paying them with my money.
Why pay them for 9 weeks and then start the severance package.
Oh and mow many of the GM suppliers will be able to survive this 9 week period. Most will be gone at the end of summer.
I was talking with a man yesterday. He is a heavy equipment repairman. His company at 0930 told him to go home because there was no heavy equipment to repair. He was told to check back today. Happy times are here again!
OK... That helps on the expense side, but without cars to sell how do they boost the revenue side?
I suspect that the GM employees will be paid by directive of Obama under the torture policy he has instated:
I.E. Obama will declare that it would be “torture” for the union members not to get paid for not working and as “he has stated before” no torture will be allowed in the USA”. s/o
My husband works for a GM/Big Three supplier, and we have already endured lay offs all year (one week on, one week off.) They do make parts for other companies, and that is the only business they have had since December. They have permanently layed off well over 300 workers so far, so I don't know how much slower they can get, but we are not real optimistic.
Having said that, I wish that GM and Chrysler would have gone into bankrupcy months ago. They should have never been bailed out in the first place! If President Bush wouldn't have kicked the can down the road back then, maybe things would have been starting to turn around by now. All they did was delay the inevitable.
My husband has 20 years with the company, so for now his job is safe, and since they are the biggest company in the world that does what they do, the threat of total shutdown is pretty remote, but living on 32 hours every other week has not been fun. Thankfully my job is very secure, so I am learning to be the main bread winner of the family.
BTW, his company is non union.
My God. So goes GM, so goes the Country. How true. Yes, I HAD 25 good years and bailed out in March 2000. This ain’t gonna be pretty. Especially for the 0ne.
Remember when Bush was President and people were in GM, Ford and Chrysler showrooms buying cars and trucks?
Link, please.
You did mean that with sarcasm I hope. You do realize the bank's BS is just that, BS. It is all smoke and mirrors.
This is the unions being too greedy and Pelosi & Reids 2006 Congress and their NO energy policy.
We have FOUR times the oil reserves of the Saudis in the lower 48 states onshore. Gas going to $4.50 a barrel was the final nail in the coffin.
People in MI and around the country voting for Obama also did this. once he was elected and even when his polls in teh fall were good - capital fled the country, everything froze up and people just STOPPED spending.
I grew up mostly in NW Ohio, so I'm sympathetic to the plight of the peripheral businesses that are hurt when the Big 3 are shut-down.
But, you're right. Bankruptcy is the solution now and it was the solution last year. Bush was chasing a legacy and didn't want GM bankruptcy on his bio. Obama doesn't want a conventional bankruptcy because the unions would have to make some real concessions.
I think it pretty clear that we're going to get one of these pre-packaged deals that's going to completely insulate the unions from much give-back. Ultimately, without significant changes to the union contracts, not just compensation, but the make-work rules as well, I have a difficult time believing any of the unionized auto makers can serve in the long term.
How are all the union guys gonna get in their daytime drinking if the plants are closed?
If that happens, I have a feeling most people will be so disgusted with GM and the UAW that they will never consider buying from either again.
No, I wasn't being sarcastic. You are correct that with some banks, especially the mega-banks, the profitability is pure window dressing. But, with a lot of smaller, regional banks, it's legitimate profit.
Contrary to the alarmist noise that Paulson and now Geihtner have spewed, there were a lot of banks that were still well capitalized, even after losses do to these securitized mortgages and the ancillary products that were leveraged off of those securities.
I can only imagine what the jobs numbers are going to be by June.
It would require a big adjustment, huge for some. But failing businesses that deserve to fail are a necessary part of a healthier market.
There’s a successful business in GM somewhere, if the government gets out of their way and management makes good decisions.
If not, well they fail or they stay alive longer to cause worse problems than if they failed.
Government Motors employees are living off our money. Obama is buying votes with our money. How about a bailout for all residential real estate construction workers, real estate brokers and salesmen, home pool builders, etc etc etc etc etc.
Too much government involvement with GM, but it fits the Demo-Socialists agenda. How about a new Chevy model called the PeoplesWagon, designed by Herr Obama?
“I can only imagine what the jobs numbers are going to be by June.”
I think unemployment is going to skyrocket. Obama’s policies are killing the economy.
As one of my economics professors in college said to us: “When the government tries to fix something, it makes things worse.”
Will the unempl. insurance $$$ ever run out ??
I don’t know if I read it on msnbc.com or heard it on Fox and Friends this morning.
“How about a new Chevy model called the PeoplesWagon”
Already got one. It’s called the “Volt.”
GM is betting the farm on the Volt and, while it is a nice car, it just won’t work. However, the liberals will expect us all to shell out $40,000 each for Nancy Pelosi’s dream car, to bailout greedy unions, as they kowtow to the socialists.
Not so long as the Fed has paper and ink it won't, not with this administration.
0 is “in bed” with the unions. The trail of deception leads right back to our Community Organizer in Chief.
Sorry, but I do not see it. I don’t listen to Paulson and tax-fraud Tim. I look elsewhere and read between the lines. I pulled my 401K out in July of 2008 and put it all in guaranteed funds. I think I did pretty good considering what I have heard. I see no reason to change that and I see the S&P dive to about 600 and the Dow to about 5000 before anything changes.
During the nine weeks off, GM will file for Bankruptcy, and come back a leaner meaner competitor. Fewer models, smaller cars smaller work force.//// UAW can drop dead.
I can’t post what I want to say because -———————
......Will the unempl. insurance $$$ ever run out ??.....
Remember the Bene gesset mantra..... Fear is the mind killer.
Unemployment payments or not, the all encompassing fear of total doom will motivate the rank and file to kill the leadership. Intransigence can be cured by death.
“Why pay them for 9 weeks and then start the severance package.”
I would like the summer off too. HHmm first teachers, now auto workers.
Oh, that’s right! I can’t afford to be because I have to pay for this crap!!!
There’s also a Cadillac version, a coupe, and it’s an extremely good looking car. I don’t have the apparently built-in suspcicion of hybrids that you have; $40K for a luxury coupe with acceleration equivalent to a small V-8, over 40 mpg highway and plug-in so you don’t even have to use gasoline at all for commutes under 20 miles round trip, sounds pretty appealing to me. GM’s approach with the Volt and the Caddy makes more mechanical sense, being an electric car with a 1.4 liter gasoline engine as a range extender, an onboard generator, more or less. If they set it up like their hybrid trucks, it may actually be usable as an electric generator. So, I see no problem with such a product. If they’ve done their homework, it’ll find its niche.
Careful what you wish for, you just might get it.
“I don’t have the apparently built-in suspcicion of hybrids that you have”
No, I don’t have a problem with hybrids at all (I really like the Ford Fusion Hybrid!), but the problem is the really high prices they expect us to pay for them.
My husband does work with many suppliers. They are already closing left and right. This will surely put more under. Yes, this will have a ripple affect all over.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.