GM Layoffs Start Today, Cuts 4,000 Jobs Ahead Of Q4 Earnings Report

General Motors Company (GM) today will begin firing 4,000 salaried employees in Canada and the United States as it copes with falling demand for combustion engine cars while transitioning to electric vehicles (EVs). The company calls these firings “involuntary layoffs.”

Altogether, America’s largest motor vehicle maker is expected to fire anywhere from 14,000 to 17,700 employees in the largest mass firing in its history. And, as an added insult to the sacked employees, GM wants to complete as many of the layoffs as possible before it reports its earnings Wednesday, sources briefed on the matter revealed. The demoralizing news might lead to a larger than expected drop in the company’s stock on Wall Street.

An upside for the company is that the mass terminations as a result of its restructuring and reorganization are expected to save GM some $6 billion by 2020. Half of these savings will be realized by the end of 2019, according to the company.

Bosses told investors in mid-January the company’s full-year results for 2018 exceeded the company’s expectations. They also gave a positive outlook for 2019.

GM CEO Mary Barra first announced the company’s intent to fire a massive number of its employees in November 2018.

"This industry is changing very rapidly," said Barra at the time. "These are things we are doing to strengthen our core business. We are right-sizing capacity for the realities of the marketplace."

She also announced the company’s plan to halt production this year at three assembly plants -- the Lordstown small-car factory near Youngstown, Ohio; the Detroit-Hamtramck complex in Detroit and the Oshawa, Ontario, assembly complex near Toronto.

In addition, GM will stop building several models now assembled at those plants. These include the Chevrolet Cruze, the Cadillac CT6, the Chevrolet Volt hybrid and the Buick LaCrosse. The Cruze compact will be discontinued in the U.S. starting this year.

Plants in Baltimore, Maryland, and the suburban Detroit community of Warren, Michigan, which make powertrain components, have no products assigned to them after 2019 and are at risk of closure. The company said it will also close two unidentified factories outside North America.

Starting November 2018, GM offered buyouts to 17,700 employees with at least 12 years of service in the U.S. and Canada. It planned to attain 8,000 voluntary buyouts

GM said some 2,250 workers accepted severance agreements by Nov. 19. It also said it eliminated 1,500 contract jobs. Some 4,250 salaried workers and 6,000 hourly employees are waiting to be let go. The company said half of the hourly workers are in Canada with the other half in the U.S.