1,300 Michigan workers impacted as vehicles end production

UAW Local 5960 member Kimberly Fuhr inspects a Chevrolet Bolt EV during vehicle production on Thursday, May 6, 2021, at the General Motors Orion Assembly Plant in Orion Township.

General Motors will lay off a total of 1,314 employees at two factories in Michigan in connection to ending production of vehicles.

GM filed a WARN notice posted Thursday that said it will cut 945 jobs starting Jan. 1 at its Orion Assembly plant in Orion Towship.

Those cuts are related to GM’s October announcement that it was delaying production of two all-electric pickups at the plant by a full year, thereby idling the factory at the end of this year and transferring about 1,000 workers to other GM facilities in the state.

GM had planned to start production on the Chevrolet Silverado EV and GMC Sierra EV next year at Orion, but GM said that it will “retime the conversion” of Orion Assembly plant to EV truck production and restart the plant in late 2025 instead.

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