Posted on 11/11/2016 12:24:27 PM PST by Freedom of Speech Wins
The day after the 2016 election for president, General Motors announced it was laying off another 2,000 workers in plants in Ohio and Michigan, two states that gave President-elect Donald Trump a major victory on Tuesday.
GM said the layoffs will affect the third shifts in the plants in Lordstown, Ohio, and Lansing, Michigan, which build the low-selling cars sold under the Chevrolet and Cadillac brand names.
The Lordstown plant builds the compact Chevrolet Cruze, whose U.S. sales through October were down 20%, Fortune magazine reported. The Lansing Grand River plant builds the Cadillac ATS and CTS, whose sales were down 17% through October.
Earlier this year, General Motors informed investors and the car-buying public that it was increasing its presence in Mexico by investing upwards to $691 million to build new plants and expand current ones south of the border.
At the time, GM Mexico President Ernesto Hernandez celebrated the investment for what it will do for the Mexican economy.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/11/10/day-election-general-motors-announces-2000-layoffs-ohio-michigan/
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
The US could offer a tax rate of 5% for 25 years, to any manufacturer which opens in the US or expands in the US. There should be no preference for union labor, the idea is to create jobs, not grow unions.
Exactly.
Yes, cutting the tax rates and burdensome regulations will do a lot.
Glad you are proposing a penalty here. Not enough though. Something must be done to look out for the displaced workers who may never have as good a job again.
I agree but tax cuts make outsourcing the next job marginally less attractive. Do the tax cuts and deregulation first.
After GM became Gubmint Motors I bought my first ever foreign car of my life. I am done with GM. Let em burn.
Here in Michigan we are retiring coal fired generation with nothing new being built to replace it. Too costly to bring the old plants up to EPA specs and too costly to build new.
The plants are already offline and we are buying energy from Canada. It would take years to get new plants built, even if Trump could fix the EPA.
There is an important point totally unknown here on Free Republic.
The small cars in question don’t sell well in America. If they don’t sell now, they certainly won’t sell with a tariff.
Mexico has an extremely large auto manufacturing capability and it is directed towards exports of small inexpensive cars where ever there is a demand. These cars could not be built in the USA and sold on the world market. General Motors is actually late to the game pioneered by the Europeans and Asians. There is not only manufacturing ability but marine shipping infrastructure
The decision reflects the fact that the world market for these cars yields greater profit than the USA.
I can just see the Business Agent coming into the Union Hall meeting, dressed in all Black....and whistling Johnny Cash “ I hear the train a coming”!
Looks like the boycott of GM products since the “bailout” and government/Union takeover has finally caught up with them.
I know I’ll never buy another GM product.
“Better than Tariffs would be to get domestic energy down so that the cost of production is let in the US...that fixes the problem long term.”
The biggest ( and by a large margin ) cost American automakers face are legacy costs. Mostly retirement benefits and healthcare. They make the uncompetitive and with the UAW calling the labor tune, it isn’t going to get any better anytime soon. The autoworkers have priced themselves out of a world market. The newbies in the auto assembly business are going to have to accept lower wages and benefits if they are to have ANY jobs. We drive domestic automobiles, and we live in California. As we sat in a restaurant in Palo Alto on Monday, as we looked out into the parking lot, it was almost impossible to see a domestic vehicle except ab occasional SUV or pickup. Virtually no domestic autos! We were left wondering just where do the Big Three sell their cars?
Youse mean gubmint motors?
Pickups, Suv's and cross overs are huge in flyover country.
I guess they’re not expecting another bailout. Boo-hoo.
Could also offer zero tax for manufacturing companies to locate in Census designated economically distressed areas.
If they had done this last week, Michigan wouldn’t have taken so long to call for Trump. Bet this was planned so as to have no impact on the election.
Still, for pure negotiation reasons it’s foolish to take it off of the table.
I don't need tarriffs to know that buying American, and creating tax payers to pay for our infrastructure, military, and space program is a better deal in the long run than buying foreign and creating foreign tax payers to pay into another country's infrastructure, military, and space program.
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