General Motors will lay off 50 workers from the Brownstown Battery facility, a complex that has long assembled lithium-ion batteries for the Chevrolet Volt.
Reuters reported Tuesday on the layoffs and said the cuts are in addition to the previously announced layoffs across GM’s white collar and production workforce. The facility currently employees 116 people, which means the layoffs represent nearly half of the employee count.
In total, 37 hourly jobs and 13 salaried positions will be cut from the facility. Brownstown has been a battery assembly home for the Volt for years. GM announced the Chevrolet Volt will exit production next year as the automaker realigns its vehicle portfolio to better suit American consumers.
The automaker will also end production of the Chevrolet Impala, Chevrolet Cruze, Buick LaCrosse, and Cadillac CT6. Brownstown has also assembled batteries for the LaCrosse Hybrid.
The end of said vehicles will lead to up to 15,000 laid off employees across four production plants in North America. GM announced it will close the Oshawa plant in Ontario, Canada. In the U.S., the Lordstown and Detroit-Hamtramck plants will be idled. Two transmission facilities will also be idled. GM will need to negotiate the plants’ closure with the United Auto Workers union next year.
The 50 employees affected likely have transfer options to take advantage of, though. GM said it still needs 2,700 workers at other plants across the U.S. that build in-demand vehicles—i.e., crossovers, SUVs, and trucks. So far, 1,100 employees have requested to transfer, but it may not be viable for other workers. In addition, plant closures could be detrimental to local economies in Ohio and Michigan.
Comments
That really sucks. I wonder what that means for future GM EVs. Seems like either GM won’t be assembling the battery packs themselves or they’re going to have to hire people back at a later time once they roll out more electrified cars. Wonder what happens to the deal with Honda to produce their battery modules.
It would be interesting to know if this reflects a delay in the Cruise AV timetable, too, since GM invested $100 million in the plant to assemble the sensor arrays for the production cars.
(If anyone from Brownstown or Detroit-Hamtramck is reading this, thanks for your hard work over the years and good luck transferring to a different job. My Volt and ELR have both been fantastic cars; even better than advertised!)
wasn’t that deal with honda about fuel cells?
The jobs being cut are due to the loss of Volt production. They still build battery packs a Lidar packs for the Chevy Bolt and Bolt AV for Cruise.
All this is is a decrease in batteries being made right now for a car that is being discontinued.
These folks will be brought back when a new model is ready for production the replaces the Volt. Rumor has been a small CUV with the Voltec system has been coming.
GM is laying off people and closing plants to save money. What is GM doing to make money? A lot of GM vehicles are slow sellers because there are better choices out there and yet they do nothing to change that. When they do make an attempt to improve the product they turn around and cancel it. Don’t feel like good sound business practice to me. Mind you I am no Business man just saying.
Maybe demented MARY will hire the people from china to work at the plant , she’s sending them work anyway