General Motors to cut 1,100 jobs at Michigan assembly plant

US carmaker General Motors (GM) yesterday said that it will lay off 1,100 employees at its Lansing Delta Township Assembly plant in Michigan when it cuts the third shift in May and shifts production of a vehicle to Tennessee.

The plant, which makes the Chevrolet Traverse and Buick Enclave, employs around 3,000 hourly employees and 250 salaried workers.

The Tennessee plant will be making a new version of the GMC Acadia SUV, while the Lansing plant will continue building the Buick Enclave and Chevrolet Traverse.

In early February, GM announced it would build the 2018 Holden Acadia, the Australian version of the GMC Acadia, at its Tennessee plant and quit making cars in Australia this year.

The latest job cuts comes after GM recently made two other shift reductions at its assembly plants in Lordstown, Ohio, and Lansing Grand River plants, taking the total number of employees affected by the changes to around 3,200 hourly and salaried employees.

Several of those workers will be laid off, while others may have been transferred to other plants.

The move also comes a day after GM agreed to sell its Opel/Vauxhall subsidiary and GM Financial's European operations to French maker of Peugeot and Citroen cars PSA Group for $2.3 billion (See: French group PSA acquires GM's European business for $2.3 bn). http://www.domain-b.com/companies/companies_g/General_Motors/20170306_acquires.html

In January, GM announced a $1-billion investment in its factories that would create or keep around 1,000 jobs, as part of its plan of equipping factories to build new models.

The announcement had come after president-elect Donald Trump attacked GM and other automakers for building vehicles in Mexico and shipping them to the US.

GM became only the latest automaker to announce US factory investments in response to Trump. Rivals Ford Motor Co and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV have said that they would spend on US plants after Trump threatened for months to slap Mexico-built vehicles with a 35 per cent import tax.