General Motors Co to slash production, jobs in US, to focus on electric segment

The announcement is the biggest restructuring in North America for the US No 1 carmaker since its bankruptcy a decade ago. Its shares rallied 7.6 per cent to $38.66. GM plans to halt production next year at three assembly plants - Lordstown, Ohio, Hamtramck, Michigan, and Oshawa, Ontario. The company also plans to stop building several models now assembled at those plants, including the Chevrolet Cruze, the Cadillac CT6 and the Buick LaCrosse. The Cruze compact car will be discontinued in the US market in 2019.

Plants in Baltimore, Maryland, and Warren, Michigan that assemble powertrain components will have no products assigned to them after 2019 and thus are at risk of closure, the company said. It will also close two factories outside North America, but did not identify them.

“We are right-sizing capacity for the realities of the marketplace,” Chief Executive Mary Barra said, adding that the cuts were prompted by auto industry changes. Barra said the company will double resources dedicated to electric and self-driving vehicles over the next two years. The UAW union vowed to “confront this decision by GM through every legal, contractual and collective bargaining avenue open to our membership.”

“General Motors’ decision to stop production at the Lordstown, Ohio, and Hamtramck, Michigan, assembly plants will idle thousands of workers, and will not go unchallenged by the UAW,” Terry Dittes, UAW Vice President in charge of negotiations with GM, said.