[BlackGTP]

GM to make more job cuts, trim costs with voluntary separation offers (msn.com)
Story by Jamie L. LaReau, Detroit Free Press
March 9, 2023

About a week after General Motors unexpectedly cut several hundred jobs to help it trim costs and form a top-tier workforce to guide its transition to an all-electric car company, CEO Mary Barra told employees Thursday morning that there will be more job eliminations to come — this time voluntary.

In the memo, obtained by the Free Press, Barra told employees that GM will offer a voluntary separation program to all U.S. salaried employees with five or more years of service, and to all global executives with two or more years with the automaker. The memo said the idea is to “accelerate attrition" and, she wrote, "taking this step now will avoid the potential for involuntary actions" in the future.

GM will release the details of the packages to qualified salaried employees later Thursday, but shared some of it with the Free Press as listed below. The employees will have until March 24 to take the package. The memo said GM Korea will offer a voluntary separation package to be communicated locally and GM International will continue with "limited business optimization and performance management as required." The program is not being offered to employees in Canada, Europe, Mexico or China, the memo said.

GM spokesperson David Barnas confirmed the contents of the memo saying it is "part of our plan to accelerate attrition and achieve $2 billion in cost savings by the end of 2024." He did not provide a target number as to how many voluntarily separations GM hopes to get.

Continues at link

 

[BlackGTP]

I immediately thought of Ford and wonder what kind of pressure this puts on them in regard to their cuts. Does this all of a sudden mean that their cuts will be insufficient to generate income comparable to GM? Though entirely possible GM is reacting to Ford's moves....

And of course, GM is doing what is best for themselves, but I do wonder how much they look at their crosstown rival as they change their operations.

 

[BlackGTP]

More shrinkage.

Sort of.... A layoff is a layoff, people lose their jobs and an awful experience.

But technology changes as do businesses. I'm an accountant, 50 years ago I'd probably have 20+ people reporting to me to get the job done that now my one employee and myself can get done. Instead of spending all of our time adding numbers on spreadsheets, leaving little time for analysis, we now spend most of our time analyzing and a lot less on compiling numbers. Progress - and it makes sense that accounting in general has dropped a lot of those heads yet provide more value to the company.

My point being that sometimes these "culling's" are just an accumulation of job redundancies that have built up since the last downturn and recessions are a good excuse to make the painful job cuts.

 

[BlackGTP]

No gloating from me for any job lost. And your point about technological shift seems particularly appropriate, given GM’s continued struggles and failure to deliver EVs at scale. This despite their oft-claimed manufacturing & engineering expertise and dominance over and above the now-established EV giant (Tesla) eg.

Btw kudos for recognising early the trending potential for growth within the latter. Which seems irresistibly relevant to compare against the ongoing shrinkage of the former.

Here's How Elon Musk Gets Tesla to 500,000 Cars a...

Here's How Elon Musk Gets Tesla to 500,000 Cars a Year by 2020 http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-10/here-s-how-elon-musk-takes-tesla-to-500-000-cars-in-five-years?cmpid=BBD081015_BIZ Bloomberg.com By Tom Randall August 10, 2015 For once, Elon Musk may be right on schedule...

www.gminsidenews.com

I've been on the receiving end of layoffs, an awful experience and not to be trivialized to the impacts on everyone involved. But they also can be discussed respectfully as we are.