
General Motors laid off roughly 1,000
people globally on Friday via an early morning email as part of a reorganizing effort.
“The affected employees will receive a payment equal to their wages and benefits
through Jan. 14, 2025, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filed with the state,” according to The Detroit News. “In
total, 507 employees working at the Global Technical Center or assigned to work there were let go, according to the notice. The cuts included 34 employees working in aftersales engineering, 40 working
in engineering operations, 26 in manufacturing engineering and 24 in sales operations.”
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These layoffs follow an August layoff affecting more than 1,000 salaried employees working in
its software and services organization.
“The workers, mostly white collar, were notified about the decisions early Friday,” according to The Associated Press. “GM has about 150,000 employees worldwide, with the
largest group at its technical center in the Detroit suburb of Warren, Michigan. The company had 76,000 white-collar workers worldwide at the end of last year.”
The company
confirmed the layoffs but gave few details.
A statement said the company needs to “optimize for speed and excellence. This includes operating with efficiency, ensuring we have
the right team structure and focusing on our top priorities.”
Some of those laid off had decades of service to the automaker, yet received the news of their dismissal in a
generic-sounding 5 a.m. email.
“One employee, who worked multiple decades at GM, told the Detroit Free Press on Friday he received an email in the early morning hours
that started with, ‘We are facing the difficult decision to say goodbye to some of our colleagues,’” according to the newspaper. "It referenced
simplifying the business, but did not offer him a reason for his specific termination or details about severance pay. He asked to not be named due to the sensitivity of the situation and not yet
getting a severance package, but he said he had years of top-rated performance reviews so he'd be shocked to learn if he was let go due to his performance.”
A majority of
those affected were in suburban Detroit at the automaker’s global technical center in Warren. A small number of hourly workers were also laid off.
“Some were due to poor
performance, while others were part of a review to reorganize priorities by the automaker, according to the person, who agreed to speak about the decision on the condition of anonymity,” according to NBC News.
The United Auto Workers union
expressed dismay over the layoffs.
"GM is trying to cut around 50 UAW jobs when they're making record profits,” Mike Booth, who is the UAW vice president, told the
Detroit Free Press. “We will fight for our laid off members with the full force of our contract.”