DETROIT (WXYZ) — Today is called Black Monday at General Motors with the layoff of thousands of salaried, white-collar employees.
This is part of a $2.5 billion dollar restructuring that includes 5 plant closings in the U.S. and Canada.
Members of the United Auto Workers Union have been invited to be in the audience of the State of the Union Speech tomorrow night. Will President Trump who has criticized the GM cuts take a shot?
PR and Communications expert Matt Friedman says, “It’s a big megaphone a big audience. But GM has to have though through all of their possibilities from a government affairs perspective as part of the PR package that they’re dealing with this week. It’s very easy to have sympathy for somebody when you feel like it’s an insult being added to injury.”
The Canadian Unifor Union broadcast another TV ad during the Super Bowl in Canada that GM tried to stop. The company confirms it sent a cease and desist letter, but the ad ran anyway.
The ad says, “GM continues to expand in Mexico leaving workers out in the cold. So when GM needed help we gave them nearly 300 dollars from every Canadian. If you want to sell here, build here.”
The company says the ad is misleading when it talks about the bailout a decade ago. GM says it paid the loan back to Canadians.
GM says it is giving severance packages to salaried employees being laid off that include cash, insurance benefits depending on length of service and help finding new jobs.
A GM plant in Lordstown, Ohio is set to close next month. The Detroit Hamtramck plant is set to close in June and the biggest plant in Oshawa, Ontario will close by the end of this year.
