#FactoryClosings

Jaguar Land Rover intends to close factories in the United Kingdom for a week in November. While the move is to safeguard the company against a messy Brexit, the company has said it will take place whether or not the nation actually splits from Europe at the end of October. JLR Chief Executive Officer Ralf Speth confirmed the company’s decision late last month.

Brexit has been a long time coming. While the UK voted to leave the European Union over three years ago, considerable energy has gone into postponing the event to either undo the vote (via a follow-up referendum) or delay things long enough to reach a trade agreement with the EU. Automakers have encouraged a deal in order to avoid supply chain disruptions. However, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the nation has waited long enough, promising a no-deal Brexit on October 31st if an accord cannot be reached beforehand.

While JLR won’t be the only automotive manufacturer to temporarily shutter European plants over Brexit fears, reports suggest it’s likely to be the one with the broadest implications.

It’s been roughly a month since General Motors announced it would be shuttering Oshawa Assembly, leaving the facility’s nearly 3,000 employees and Canada’s auto union more than a little annoyed. Unifor leadership has said it intends to meet with GM executives on December 20th and discuss the automaker’s plans for the Oshawa facility in Detroit. However, the rhetoric coming from union head Jerry Dias makes the upcoming meeting sound more like a mafia hit than a labor negotiation.

“GM is leaving Canada, and we’re not going to let them,” Dias told reporters. “We are going to waste General Motors over the next year. Waste them.”

The big news this week is General Motors’ decision to cull its lineup, closing plants and sacking about 15 percent of its North American workforce in the process. According to Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra, GM’s official reasons for doing so are all part of its grand plan to transition to a company focused on electric vehicles and self-driving cars.

While we harbor a vague suspicion that the automaker is actually trying to prepare itself for an incoming economic downturn, leaving itself with plenty of financial wiggle room, GM currently enjoys relatively healthy profits (thank you, truck sales) and a lofty share price. In fact, GM shares rose nearly 5 percent after it announced the shuttering of several plants in the U.S. and Canada, cutting as many as 14,800 jobs.

Unfortunately, GM’s investors seem to be the only group that’s pleased with the decision. Everyone else appears to be absolutely furious.