GM plant closings will hit parts suppliers far and wide
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
FILE-This Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018 file photo shows Mari Keels transferring a front end of a General Motors Chevrolet Cruze during assembly at Jamestown Industries, in Youngstown, Ohio. Jamestown Industries, which supplies front and rear bumper covers for the Cruze, hopes its efforts to secure new business will allow its Youngstown plant to keep going. But the plant is down from three shifts to one and GM is still its biggest customer. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak, File)
TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) -- The sting from a major restructuring at General Motors and its planned closings of five North American factories in the coming months is putting thousands of jobs at auto parts suppliers at stake, as well.
For most of them, there is no safety net.
"There's nowhere to transfer. They've got nowhere to go. They're just out of work," said Dave Green, a union leader near Youngstown where GM in early March plans to shut down its factory.
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The dominoes already are starting to fall. A plant that makes seats for the Cruze and another business that does logistics and warehousing work for GM in Ohio will close in March, too. Just three years ago, those two had a combined 800 workers.
Green has compiled a list of more than 50 other businesses whose work is tied to the Ohio assembly plant. But it's difficult to know how many could be forced to cut jobs because many do work for other auto plants and industries.
Despite varying estimates, some economists project that for every auto plant job that is lost, three or four additional positions are eliminated. Research shows that auto plants, and manufacturing in general, create more spinoff jobs than other industries.
Tip of the iceberg I believe. In addition to the slowdown in auto sales worldwide, there are the added costs of the tariff war.
Ford just announced a 8.5 drop in sales for December and 3.5 % for the year.
GM to start laying off 4,000 white collar workers Monday.
Seems the US auto makers are always short sighted.
What is going to happen if the price of gas goes back up and they are only selling trucks and SUVs.
Also with trump rolling back MPG rules.
They will again lose out to foreign auto makers.