GM To Lay Off 510 Employees In Two Separate Actions

Cameron Aubernon
by Cameron Aubernon

A total of 510 employees will be laid-off beginning in January, the result of two separate actions linked to production and inventory concerns.

According to Automotive News, the majority — 350 employees — come from the Lansing Grand River Assembly plant in Lansing, Mich., where the Cadillac ATS and CTS are assembled. The cut comes from the loss of a second shift at the plant, a planned cut in production as part of Cadillac president Johan de Nysschen’s promise to make his brand more exclusive, and to allow excess inventory to be sold off.

A second shift is expected to return when GM begins production of the next-gen Chevrolet Camaro — based upon the same platform underpinning the two Cadillacs — between the end of 2015 and the start of 2016. In the meantime, GM plans to relocate some of the 350 to one of its two nearby plants.

Closer to Detroit, Detroit Free Press says the remaining 160 employees at Lake Orion Assembly in Orion Township, Mich. will have their positions permanently phased-out starting in January. The plant is slowing down production of the Buick Verano and Chevrolet Sonic to meet projected sales. Representative Chris Bonelli says the process will conclude by the end of 2015, but the number of workers ultimately laid-off “could be reduced by planned retirements and general attrition.”

Cameron Aubernon
Cameron Aubernon

Seattle-based writer, blogger, and photographer for many a publication. Born in Louisville. Raised in Kansas. Where I lay my head is home.

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  • Calgarytek Calgarytek on Nov 12, 2014

    While GM Canada's operations sunset, Honda is actively investing. As for GM, well, poor decisions/approvals originate from management. One more reason to buy local (ie. Honda) as opposed to GM (most of their crap is sourced/will be assembled overseas). Give Honda/Toyota the tax incentives and screw GM.

    • Mikey Mikey on Nov 12, 2014

      calgarytek...Honda is actively investing 81 million dollars of taxpayers money. Seems they plan to modernize their facility. Translation more robots.....less jobs. The rest of your uninformed comment, is not worth wasting the key strokes on.

  • Wmba Wmba on Nov 12, 2014

    " ...... Cadillac president Johan de Nysschen’s promise to make his brand more exclusive, and to allow excess inventory to be sold off." Ha, ha, ha. The Caddy PR folk are still grazing at the RenCen, I see. No SoHo for them. Still insisting black and white is "something" plus black and white.

  • VenomV12 VenomV12 on Nov 12, 2014

    A couple of weeks ago I decided to give Cadillac another shot and test drove the CTS again, this time the proper one, V6 Premium model with everything. My test drive pretty much sums up why Cadillac is having problems. First the good. The car looked great in black, the wheels looked fantastic, the interior materials on the Premium are very nice and the top of the line seats are great. The power and handling are great and the car feels good and I like how the suspension feels and works in the different modes. CUE works fine for me, I like it, it has always worked fine for me. I also love the HUD system. The steering wheel was excellent also. Now the bad. This dealership, while staffed by nice pleasant people, is also a Chevy dealership. The salesmen were dressed in polo shirts and most of them covered in tattoos and knew little to nothing about cars and the guy I went out with, I suspect he worked at Taco Bell for his last job, I am not kidding. This dealership also likes to advertise their cars by having the hoods up with giant letters, you know these types of dealerships. Here is what is bad with the CTS. First of all the backseat is small and the cushion thin, the trunk is not large either. The panoramic sunroof is too small and needs to be extended further back. The motorized cupholder is just stupid, how about a motorized trunk instead on an almost $70,000 car? I don't understand how this car does not have this as an option? The center console storage is pathetic also, although in their defense, Range Rover's center console storage is just as bad if not worse. Cadillac makes a very nice car, but if they are serious about selling these and becoming the best luxury car maker out there, they need to be realistic and go visit a Lexus dealership and try to get their company up to that level, or they are just wasting their time. I criticized Johan a lot before but in retrospect, maybe he is correct with the move to Manhattan. Cadillac needs to disassociate itself from GM and the kind of people that are usually in GM dealerships and move to more of a Euro/Japanese atmosphere. To some extent even though Corvettes are selling well now, Corvette needs to do this also.

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    • DeadWeight DeadWeight on Nov 12, 2014

      @udman Cadillac Dealers are basically untenable as stand alone propositions, given the cost of constructing anew one, or renovating an older one based on GM's requirements to enable participation in direct GM incentive/subsidy program (which is based on volume sales, what else?). There are few Cadillac dealers that sell more than 750 new cars per year. The ones that do are typically the Midwest and go balls out to exceed 1,000 new car sales a year. Most seasoned dealers wouldn't start or want a Cadillac Dealership at this point unless it came with a GMC dealer attached - which is where the profits, action and volume are and have been for some time. By selling GMC, a Cadillac dealer can leverage economies of scale by sharing service bays, body shop, and lot/inventory acreage. I would guess that the typical GMC dealer sells an average of 3x to 4x the volume of new vehicles that a Cadillac Dealership does. This just reflects the fact that GM has made horrible product and pricing decisions regarding Cadillac's structure.

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