Remaining GM Workers on Edge as Layoffs End: We're 'Nervous and Afraid'

The remaining American workers at General Motors (GM) say they are on edge as layoffs of thousands of longtime U.S. employees have somewhat concluded at a number of the automakers’ plants. At the beginning of the month, GM executives began laying off 14,700 workers in the United States and Canada, with the majority of the layoffs concentrated in Michigan, Ohio, Maryland, Georgia, and Texas, including at least 3,300 American factory workers. These layoffs included the mass layoff of at least 4,000 American workers in white-collar jobs for GM, many of whom were older and had worked at the multinational corporation for more than two decades. This year, GM is stopping production at four American plants, including Detroit-Hamtramck and Warren Transmission in Michigan, Lordstown Assembly in Ohio, and Baltimore Operations in Maryland. This comes after GM laid off about 1,500 American workers in Lordstown in 2018, while their Mexico production remains unaffected and production in China ramps up. Now, the American workers who remain at GM write online through message boards that they are on edge and that the corporation has a “culture of fear” where workers’ jobs are seemingly on the chopping block at a moment’s notice. “Those of us that remain, are nervous and afraid.