begin here at 6:00 with General Motors
the biggest restructuring that we've
seen at the company since the bankruptcy
the automaker announcing its plans for
next year do not include several car
models and the plants that make them GM
will discontinue the Chevy Impala Chevy
Volt and Chevy Cruze they will idle five
plants in North America including
Detroit Hamtramck home to more than 1300
hourly and nearly 200 salaried workers
and warn transmission employing Turner
sixty-five hourly and seventy-five
salaried workers workers of course were
not happy to hear this news today right
now it's not gonna be much of a
Christmas so it's pretty bad and that's
why I came here to see what's going on
cuz I need to get back to work a lot of
workers no doubt sharing her same
sentiment General Motors tipped its hand
about the kinds of cost-cutting it wants
to do by offering voluntary layoffs to
18,000 white-collar workers last month
but not enough took them and GM now
following through with its promise of
layoffs if enough weren't taken the
company they'll also up the ante so now
more than 14,000 employees white and
blue collar are the layoffs target's
business had a Rob Moloney now with a
look at what's behind this very
aggressive move by GM when rod the
profits and things have been pretty good
they've been very good but I think
that's it the key to this divin because
they're doing this while they can and
not when they have to which could end up
causing the company a whole lot more
pain now there's a lot going on on the
industry GM promising it wants to go
all-electric and soon SUVs are the hot
sellers that list it can kimberly read
there that's all cars and also GM wants
its workforce to be much smaller smarter
more nimble and quick changing and so
behind all of that comes these kinds of
layoffs the low selling hybrid Chevy
Volt is old technology replaced by the
bolt cars like the LaCrosse aren't
selling either Ford and Chrysler already
largely out of the car business and Auto
Trader analysts Michelle Krebs says
we've all been waiting for GM to address
the car issue
nod well receive new UAW president Gary
Jones's angry saying quote we must step
away from the anti worker thinking of
seeking simply the lowest labor cost
than the
planet we must understand that these
companies including GM are no longer in
trouble they're recording annual profits
in the tens of billions to that end the
UAW and its membership will do its part
to convince GM and all American
employers that the American consumer
market should support american-made
products by building where we buy
products end quote a disappointed Mayor
Mike Duggan talked about his morning
phone call with Mary Barra and I
reminded her that we moved thousands of
people out of that neighborhood hundreds
of businesses six churches at hospital
to create that assembly plant and I felt
that the city of Detroit I deserved more
consideration former GM vice chairman
Bob Lutz believes just like everybody
else if there is no demand for a certain
car and no demands for that plant the
plant closes down because you cannot
have workers show up every day and get
paid and not produce anything and so
what this leads to is a very very tough
negotiation next summer for the UAW
National Contract General Motors
essentially laying down the gauntlet
saying you want to keep a plant like
diamo
open then you're gonna have to negotiate
you're gonna have to give up something a
smaller workforce is likely to be part
of that so these negotiations next
summer that handshake that they're gonna
have across the table it's not gonna be
so friendly back to you guys sounds like
those negotiations could be tough so rod
this is a really bold move by Mary Barra
what is she really looking to accomplish
here well what she's looking to do is to
make General Motors into the company
that all of her predecessors had hoped
to make but could not do it's a bold
move in that she wants Wall Street to
like General Motors now the stock is up
five percent tonight after today's
announcement she also wants to make it a
technology company and she wants to make
a lot of autonomous electric vehicles
but she has to have the money to be able
to do that because there's no profit in
that right now she's got a lot of
masters to serve and trying to keep the
UAW happy is going to be very difficult
in that too so this is going to be like
I said a very tough negotiation next
summer and you can understand all that
but just at this time right before the
holidays it's just a good thing isn't it
yeah