GM offers buyouts to 'majority' of U.S. salaried workers

[BumRushDaShow]

Last edited Thu Mar 9, 2023, 08:22 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: CNBC

DETROIT – General Motors will offer voluntary buyouts to a “majority” of its 58,000 U.S. white-collar employees, as it aims to cut $2 billion in structural costs over the next two years, according to a letter sent to workers Thursday from CEO Mary Barra.

The “Voluntary Separation Program,” or VSP, will be offered to all U.S. salaried employees who have spent five or more years at the company as of June 30. Outside of the U.S., the automaker will offer buyouts to executives with at least two years of time at the company.

GM expects to take a pretax charge of up to $1.5 billion related to the buyouts, according to a public filing Thursday. The majority of the charges are expected to be all-cash and occur during the first half of the year, the company said.

Barra, in the letter Thursday, said the program is “designed to accelerate attrition in the U.S.,” assisting the company in potentially avoiding “involuntary actions” in the future. The buyout offer comes after the Detroit automaker said last week it would terminate about 500 salaried positions globally. The last time GM offered such a large buyout program was for roughly 18,000 North American salaried employees in 2018-2019.


Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/09/gm-buyouts-us-salaried-workers.html

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Article updated.

Previous articles -

DETROIT - General Motors will offer voluntary buyouts to a "majority" of its 58,000 U.S. white-collar employees, as it aims to cut $2 billion in structural costs over the next two years, according to a letter sent to workers Thursday from CEO Mary Barra.

The "Voluntary Separation Program," or VSP, will be offered to all U.S. salaried employees who have spent five or more years at the company as of June 30. Outside of the U.S., the automaker will offer buyouts to executives with at least two years of time at the company.

GM expects to take a pretax charge of up to $1.5 billion related to the buyouts, according to a public filing Thursday. The majority of the charges are expected to be all-cash and occur during the first half of the year, the company said.

Barra, in the letter Thursday, said the program is "designed to accelerate attrition in the U.S.," assisting the company in potentially avoiding "involuntary actions" in the future. The buyout offer comes after the Detroit automaker said last week it would terminate about 500 salaried positions globally. The last time GM offered such a large buyout program for salaried employees was 2019.

DETROIT - General Motors will offer voluntary buyouts to a "majority" of its U.S. white-collar employees, as it aims to cut $2 billion in structural costs over the next two years, according to a letter sent to workers Thursday from CEO Mary Barra.

The "Voluntary Separation Program," or VSP, will be offered to all U.S. salaried employees who have spent five or more years at the company as of June 30. Outside of the U.S., the automaker also is offering buyouts to executives with at least two years of time or more.

GM expects to take a pre-tax charge of up to $1.5 billion related to the buyouts, according to a public filing Thursday by the company. It comes after the Detroit automaker said last week it would terminate about 500 salaried positions globally.

Bara, in the letter Thursday, said the program is "designed to accelerate attrition in the U.S.," assisting the company in potentially avoiding "involuntary actions" in the future. "Employees are strongly encouraged to consider the program," GM said in an emailed statement to CNBC Thursday. "By permanently bringing down structured costs, we can improve vehicle profitability and remain nimble in an increasingly competitive market." At the end of last year, GM employed about 81,000 salaried employees worldwide, according to public filings.

Original article -

DETROIT - General Motors will offer voluntary buyouts to a "majority" of its U.S. white-collar employees, as it aims to cut $2 billion in structural costs over the next two years, according to a letter sent to workers Thursday from CEO Mary Barra.

The "Voluntary Separation Program," or VSP, come after the Detroit automaker said last week it would terminate about 500 salaried positions globally.


This is developing news. Please check back for additional information.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. "Artificial intelligence will destroy 'laptop class' workers"

Hat tip, riversedge

Thu Mar 9, 2023: Artificial intelligence will destroy 'laptop class' workers

OPINION>TECHNOLOGY

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL

Artificial intelligence will destroy ‘laptop class’ workers

BY KRISTIN TATE, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR - 03/08/23 10:30 AM ET

The coming artificial intelligence economic revolution will be a major shock to the world. There is a serious possibility that the next decade will bring about a series of social and economic changes akin to the Industrial Revolution and the advent of the internet combined. Many writers, human resource officers, lawyers, writers, artists, and even coders increasingly will be replaced by AI as the “laptop class” of workers is decimated. At the same time, blue-collar workers who work with their hands will enjoy job security; their services cannot be replaced by technology. Unfortunately for waves of young people, the media’s advice to “learn to code” may have been like investing in typewriters.

Artificial intelligence is advancing at a breakneck speed. Recent announcements of programs that can mimic human conversation, copy our voice, write research papers, and paint beautiful pictures are just a small sliver of the coming AI revolution. The coming changes in everyday life soon will become noticeable, including the popularity of AI-generated video games, music, art, and even movies. A short description and a click of the mouse can spit out a new novel by John Steinbeck or an economic treatise by Thomas Sowell.

Scores of jobs that require a college education will be changed nearly overnight. Rapid advances in this new technology will wreak havoc on the very people who prospered during COVID, especially those who work in the “knowledge economy” and can often carry out their duties from their laptops at home. Artificial intelligence advances within the next one to five years will outpace most work a human can input into a keyboard. Most content on the web will be written by chatbots. There will be AI influencers. Code will be written in a tiny fraction of the time it takes for humans to produce it. Graphic artists will lose most of their business to art generators. Even accountants and financial analysts may be outpaced by computers. ChatGPT already helps coders through basic code, which often needs refining. The chat service also can help replace many of the smarts needed to build a website. It already has passed an MBA exam and law exams.

Some white-collar jobs will fare better than others with the advancement of AI. Those who pioneer new techniques or are at the top of their fields will still be able to earn a respectable wage. At the same time, workers whose jobs rely on an element of personality and face-to-face relationships likely will weather the storm. Would you rather have an actual human advising you on legal matters, your finances, and your health care decisions — or a machine? Still, the shift toward a nearly labor-free creative world may make white-collar jobs across the board fewer and farther between.

{snip}

[BumRushDaShow]

3. I did see that this morning too!

I expect it is coming but I don't think it will be quite ready for prime time just yet (but may end up being used for things not even mentioned).

[Renew Deal]

4. Pretty sure that's not the case with GM

Things haven't moved fast enough to suddenly lay off thousands at GM. These buyouts are very common. It's a great opportunity for those close to retirement or others that want to take risks and move.

[NullTuples]

8. Important to note: works by AI's cannot be copyrighted per USCO

Also, blue collar workers are exactly whose jobs are eliminated any time their labor costs more than the automations that would replace them. It's not a matter of insufficient tech, just one of, "how low can we get away with paying people" on the part of corporations.

Insofar as GM firing execs...exactly what "creative" output did they create, anyway?

[Yavin4]

11. Several jobs in the trades depend on white collar workers paying them.

If a white collar worker loses their job, they're not going to hire plumbers, carpenters, electricians, etc. primarily because they won't be able to buy new homes or make repairs to their existing home.

Our economy is highly inter-connected. When there's widespread massive unemployment, we all go down no matter your skill level or where you went to school.

[Farmer-Rick]

2. I bet their factories in Mexico, China, Vietnam and Brazil

Don't get many cuts.

Moving jobs out of the US has always been a corporation's go to move to get cheap labor....even white collar cheap labor. It hides the actual labor requirements (because jobs overseas can easily be hidden from the US public) and gives them the appearance of a more streamlined, efficient and productive business.

"GM Leads In Shipping Jobs To Mexico; Company Shifting Focus To China"

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2020/09/01/gm-leads-in-shipping-jobs-to-mexico-company-shifting-focus-to-china/amp/

[RegulatedCapitalistD]

7. The Wealthy always seek Slave Labor...

And they get it unless they are Regulated against it...When Lincoln freed the slaves he was also regulating Capitalism against it.

FDR created Regulated Capitalism and that creates the highest Quality of Life on the Planet. Aka Trickle UP economics....lifting the up from the bottom and out from the Middle which put 66% of Americans in the Middle Class which was the "American Dream"

Then Reagan deregulated it...the first thing they did was take 55,000 plants to Communist countries for Slave and Child Labor in sweatshops there....and forced American Labor to compete with that. This theft from the Middle Class has starved our Social Safety net of funding which comes from Payroll taxes (and employers pay half of it...low wages help here too).....this is why they keep reminding us about how Medicare and Social Security are "going broke". Its planned obsolescence.

Now that 66% in the Middle Class has fallen to under 45% and 20 countries that still follow Trickle UP Regulated Capitalism economics now have a higher Quality of Life than Americans do.

[Farmer-Rick]

9. I was trying to figure out how many

Of this plantet's 8 billion population lived in poverty and I was amazed at what people considered poverty. The amount is so low as to be practically zero.

The range was huge. From $6.85 per person per day ($2,500 per year) to $28 per person per day ($10,000 per year), to $44 per person per day ($16,400 per year). And of course it depends on where you live.

According to PEW, In percentage terms, 17% of the global population could be considered middle income in 2020. Most people were either low income (51%) or poor (10%), while nearly 15% lived at an upper-middle-income standard and 7% were high income.

So that means only 39% of the people on this planet were middle class and rich. Yet, 61%, the vast majority of people, were low income and poor. The largest class of people in the world are low income and poor. This is messed up. And it's gotten worse since 2020.

[Hortensis]

10. Numbers give many insights but they can fail to reflect the realities

of poverty and normal, sustainable life for the people who live it.

This reminds me of a wonderful response on Quora to the question of what is poverty and the measures applied by economists. The responder was not denying poverty exists for many, only giving a personal example of how misleading numbers can be.

He himself was a modern, educated, tech-working, urban dweller in a sub-Saharan nation -- describing how his grandfather still lived serenely in a remote forest village as he and their ancestors had for hundreds or thousands of years -- on "less than a dollar a day." It was nice to hear, though, that in this era the typical lung-destroying fire in the center of the hut, and then fuel-burning stove, was now replaced with solar cooking and heating.

[Farmer-Rick]

12. Interesting

My great grandmother was so use to having an outhouse, she found it very disgusting to bring the toilet indoors. But her son's eventually built her a bathroom with an indoor toilet anyway because of her lack of mobility.

Yet, she would never have thought she was poor or deprived for not having an indoor toilet.

[Hortensis]

13. :) Aw. When you think about it from her point of view, certainly.

Outhouses belonged past a nice walk through the garden, away from the house. I remember.

[Bengus81]

5. Meanwhile the CEO made $29M in total compensation in 2021.........

Let me guess,the.... please leave would you? plea stops way before CEO Mary Barra's desk.

[Ford_Prefect]

6. Sounds like GM planning to off-shore the majority of its management which suggests they intend to

do the same with production by placing the majority of their operation outside US legal authority, away from financial and labor laws. So much for "Buy American", eh?