GM is laying off 450 workers at its Lansing Grand River plant in Lansing, Michigan, in January.
General Motors is expanding a previously announced layoff at a plant in Lansing, Michigan, by 100 people to a total of 450 employees. The layoffs, however, will be temporary.
The cuts are expected to come in January at the automaker’s Lansing Grand River plant, which makes the Cadillac ATS and CTS. Sales of the two models have been sluggish for several months and GM is cutting production to better match up with low demand.
The initial layoffs were announced in early November as part of two sets of layoffs. The other was at the company’s Orion Assembly plant in Orion, Michigan, north of Detroit, where they idled 160 workers.
Some of the Lansing workers will be recalled some time late in 2015 when production of the Chevrolet Camaro is shifted to the site from its plant in Oshawa, Ontario. However, about 200 of them will transfer to the Lansing Delta Township assembly plant to build the Buick Enclave, Chevrolet Traverse and GMC Acadia crossovers.
Other employees may be transferred to other locations as well, but those plans have not been finalized yet. The vehicles produced in Lansing are suffering because gas prices remain low. The national average price for gas today, according to AAAs, is $2.655 a gallon, but some parts of the country have seen prices dip below $2 per gallon.
(General Motors laying off 510 workers. For more, Click Here.)
Many analysts have suggested this trend is going to continue for the foreseeable future as OPEC is signaling it plans to keep production levels unchanged. The result is increased sales of larger vehicles, especially GM’s full-size pickups, SUVs and crossovers.
(Click Here to get details on finalists for 2015 Car, Truck of the Year.)
Many of GM’s large trucks, crossovers and SUVs enjoyed sales increases in November. The company’s full-size pickups, Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra were up 24.5% and 57% respectively.
(To see why the car key is becoming an endangered species, Click Here.)
The Cadillac Escalade was up 75%, while Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban retail sales up 10% and 9%, respectively. GMC Yukon retail deliveries were up 14.5. The Chevy Traverse was up 14%. GM reported ATS sales were down 33.7% in November while CTS sales were down 7.5% last month.