Thousands of workers may be rendered jobless at General Motors, as the automaker tries to optimise operations. It is reported that 507 roles have been cut at the company’s Global Technical Centre, in Warren, Michigan. About 50 members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union are also impacted by the cuts.
At Michigan, the impacted roles include that of accounts personnel, business analysts, corporate planners, cost engineers, data analysts and engineers, and so on, as per the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notice.
These cuts are being labelled as a strategic move to improve the position of General Motors in the highly-competitive automotive market.
The objective is to increase efficiency and speed without losing focus on business priorities.
The layoffs will primarily affect UAW workers and the automaker’s Michigan tech centre.
The exact number of people to be laid off is yet to be officially announced although CNBC says about 1,000 workers will be impacted.
The quarterly revenue of GM in Q3 was about $48.8 billion, 10.7 per cent more than the same time last year, even though there was an 8.8 per cent dip in sales, globally, year-on-year.
Not surprisingly, UAW is wondering why 50 of its members are being laid off when GM actually made profits.
Globally, auto makers are trying to cut costs fearing a slowdown of the industry. Additionally, more companies are shifting focus towards electric vehicles.
