General Motors continues to work at shaving its inventory glut down, but the work may come at the expense of layoffs. This time, the Spring Hill, Tennessee manufacturing plant may be in for some layoffs, according to The Columbia Daily Herald.
The automaker has made UAW leadership aware of an upcoming production slowdown, which in turn may force layoffs. The plant currently employs 4,100 workers.
“We don’t know what the impact is going to be,” United Auto Workers 1853 Chairman Mike Herron said. “We have been told we will be having a line reduction, meaning we will have fewer cars coming through the assembly line than usual.”
Currently, the Spring Hill facility is operating seven days a week, sometimes up to 12 hours a day to produce the 2017 GMC Acadia and 2017 Cadillac XT5. Both are hot products in a booming market for crossovers and utility vehicles.
“That’s the extraordinary thing about this business,” Herron said. “One minute, you’re working seven days a week, up to 12 hours a day, with all hands on deck. The next minute, it’s back to five days and 40 hours.”
However, GM spokesperson, Lauren Langille, said the automaker is committed to running three shifts at Spring Hill.
“We plan to meet future demand for the Acadia and XT5 crossovers by continuing to run the plant on three shifts but plan to make a reduction to the line speed,” Langille said. “We believe this will help maintain stable production, healthy inventory levels and provide the smallest impact to plant employment going forward. We’re not providing more detail about our plans or overall production strategy for competitive reasons.”
Even with surging crossover sales, auto sales have been curtailed during the first quarter of 2017. Many analysts believe another record year isn’t achievable after incredible gains since 2011.
GM has cut shifts at the Lordstown, Ohio, Detroit-Hamtramck and Lansing Grand River assembly plants to help reduce the automaker’s inventory glut. However, the three plants produce passenger cars, which sales of have really slumped over the past two years.
When Spring Hill was announced as the home for the Acadia and XT5, the facility was having difficulties filling the number of workers sought. Now, temporary workers will reportedly be the first to receive layoff notices should it come to that.
Comments
I’m seeing many more Cadillac XT5 and GMC Acadia vehicles on the road. If anything, I’d bet that sales continue to increase and maybe peak by next year, which would still be very good.
With all of the completely new models coming soon, some new sales may shift toward that direction.
GM should create a week of Sold and incentive, do promotion about reduction of its cars by category to encourage people go GM.
Yes, nothing reduces an inventory like actual sales of the product.