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For autoworkers, this is shaping up to be a winter of discontent and joblessness as manufacturers around the globe slash production to match supplies of vehicles to plummeting demand.
Automakers are offering buyouts to shed jobs permanently, laying off workers temporarily, not rehiring temp workers who had expected to return and extending holiday shutdowns to keep vehicle inventories in check.
Virtually no automaker is immune. Even manufacturers of hot-selling models like Mini, Audi and Renault's Dacia Logan are trimming production and laying off workers to meet lower demand - or taking action just in case sales fall further south. Nor is any region exempt. The fast-pace growth of China and Brazil has slowed, prompting automakers in those emerging markets to slow or halt production lines as well.
General Motors said this week it will suspend production at its factories in South Korea for about two weeks starting next month, a signal that the slump is spreading to Asia. The shutdown will take effect from late December and affect all five of GM's Korean plants formerly owned by Daewoo, one of GM's best-performing business units. The Chevrolet Aveo sold in the U.S. is among the models built in Korea.
After reporting its $2.5-billion net loss for the third quarter, GM said it would lay off 5,500 workers, even including a few at its Orion Township, Mich., assembly plant that builds the Chevrolet Malibu and Pontiac G6.
Sources tell AutoObserver GM has considered a corporate-wide closure of global operations similar to its traditional two-week summer shutdown in an effort to slow is blazing cash burn, sources say. So far no such official announcement has been made.
GM did confirm last week that it would force a full, two-week shutdown of its technical centers and test tracks in the U.S. so lights and heat can be reduced, saving millions. Employees who had not scheduled vacation time to extend the holiday are allowed to borrow vacation days from 2009.
A German newspaper reported that GM was pondering a shutdown of all its European assembly plants for several weeks in November and December. Citing a union source, the paper said GM planned factory shutdowns for two weeks in November and from the middle of December until the new year. GM had previously announced it did intend shutdowns at two German plants and two in the United Kingdom in order to chop 40,000 units from its late-year production schedule; the paper added that unions at a GM plant in France had been told of a closure of nearly three weeks beginning in December and lasting until January 2009.
Ford announced plans Thursday to temporarily close nine North American plants in this fourth quarter, laying off 23,000 workers and trimming North American vehicle production by a third this quarter.
The longest shutdowns will be for the full month of December at the Louisville, Ky., plant that builds the Explorer SUV and the St. Paul, Minn., that makes the Ranger pickup truck.
Plants in Oakville and St. Thomas, Ontario, and Kansas City, Missouri, will close for three weeks in November and December. The Avon Lake, Ohio, will close for two weeks. One-week shutdowns are slated at facilities in Flat Rock, Michigan; Hermosillo, Mexico; and Wayne, Michigan. Vehicles affected include the Ford Mustang, Econoline, Fusion, Edge, Escape and Flex, the Lincoln Town Car and the Mercury Mariner.
BMW announced this week that it will close its Regensburg plant for an extra 14 days over the winter break. BMW will reduce the number of 1- and 3-Series cars it originally planned to build there by 9,000. The plant will be closed from Dec. 8 to Jan. 7, 2009, extended beyond the previously schedule Dec. 22 - Jan. 6 holiday. BMW is cutting production by 65,000 vehicles in total this year.
Full Article: Winter of Discontent and Joblessness for Autoworkers Worldwide
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