If somebody already posted it, I apologize, but this is too good to miss. Quartz at Work "translated" GM’s “staffing transformation” press release into plain English.
Here's one of the highlights:
"The company hopes this announcement will be drowned out by Cyber Monday sales and completely forgotten by Christmas."
https://qz.com/work/1475097/gm-layoffs-general-motors-press-release-translated/
Good effort by the journo, I've simplifed it a bit below:
General Motors is firing 15% of its salaried workers and will close five North American plants and lay off 15% of its salaried employees. The company hopes this announcement will be drowned out by Cyber Monday sales and completely forgotten by Christmas.
Today, GM is continuing to take proactive steps to improve overall business performance including the reorganization of its global product development staffs, the realignment of its manufacturing capacity and a reduction of salaried workforce.These actions are expected to add $6 billion to annual cash flow by the end of 2020.
“The actions we are taking today will lower our costs, while giving us the flexibility to invest in the future,” said GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra. “We recognize the need to change course after people stopped buying so many of our cars”
Contributing to the cash savings of GM’s actions will save approximately $6 billion, including cost reductions of $4.5 billion and an almost $1.5 billion decrease in yearly capital spending. The actions include:
Transforming product development – GM is making too many products that not enough people want and not getting the good stuff out quickly enough. Resources allocated to electric and autonomous vehicle programs will double in the next two years. Additional actions include:
Increasing component sharing across the portfolio, especially those not visible and perceptible to customers.
Expanding the use of virtual tools to lower development time and costs.
Integrating its vehicle and propulsion engineering teams.
Shrinking its global product development campuses.
Shrinking the product portfolio
GM has recently invested in newer, vehicle architectures, especially in trucks, crossovers and SUVs. GM now intends to prioritize future vehicle investments in its battery-electric architectures. As the current vehicle portfolio shrinks, it is expected that more than 75 percent of GM’s global sales volume will come from five vehicle architectures by early next decade.
Increasing capacity utilization Growing what works
In the past four years, GM has refocused capital and resources to support the growth of its crossovers, SUVs and trucks, adding shifts and investing $6.6 billion in U.S. plants that have created or maintained 17,600 jobs. Though we would never admit that we believe people are going to stop buying cars one day, we’re preparing for a staggering drop-off. As such, future products will be made at fewer plants next year.
Assembly plants that will be shut down in 2019 include:
Oshawa Assembly in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada
Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly in Detroit
Lordstown Assembly in Warren, Ohio
Propulsion plants that will be shut down in 2019 include:
Baltimore Operations in White Marsh
Maryland.Warren Transmission
Operations in Warren, Michigan
In addition to the previously announced closure of the assembly plant in Gunsan, Korea, GM shut down two additional plants outside North America by the end of 2019.
These manufacturing actions are expected to significantly increase capacity utilization. To further enhance business performance, GM will continue working to improve other manufacturing costs, productivity and the competitiveness of wages and benefits.
Layoffs
The company is shrinking its global workforce to cut costs. Actions are being taken to reduce salaried and salaried contract staff by 15 percent, which includes 25 percent fewer executives bloating the bureaucracy.
Barra added, “These actions will increase the long-term profit and cash generation potential of the company and improve resilience through the cycle.” The company lost $3.7 billion in 2017.
GM expects to fund the restructuring costs through a new credit facility.
GM expects to record pre-tax charges of $3.0 billion to $3.8 billion related to these actions, including up to $1.8 billion of non-cash accelerated asset write-downs and pension charges, and up to $2.0 billion of employee-related and other cash-based expenses.
GM did not expect to be overtaken by Tesla as the US’s most valuable car company last year. Hopefully, these layoffs will keep GM on top.