GM is still trying to find new jobs for a little over 500 employees after announcing job closures last year.
Last November, General Motors announced plans to kill 5 production facilities in North America: 4 in the United States and 1 in Canada. The move would affect 14,000 jobs, many of which GM promised to relocate to other plants.
According to a new report from the Detroit Free Press, GM is still attempting to find jobs for 500 of 2,800 “active” hourly employees out of those 14,000. The reason for this is that two of the US plants are still operating in a limited capacity currently.
Detroit Hamtramck is continuing to operate until January making the Chevy Impala and Cadillac CT6. Hamtramck currently has 700 people working there after 593 were transferred to other sites after the Chevrolet Volt and Buick LaCrosse ceased production.
Warren Transmission is also still operating but plans to shut down in August. About 28 employees have been relocated since news of the plant’s idling broke last year.
Roughly 1,300 employees have been relocated as of April, with 670 from Lordstown Ohio being transferred and another 14 from Baltimore Operations. GM’s Baltimore site shuts down sometime this week.
Transferred employees are heading to several sites across the United States, including Flint Assembly in Michigan, Spring Hill Assembly in Tennessee, Toledo Transmission plant, Bedford Casting Operations in Indiana, Fort Wayne Assembly in Indiana, Wentzville Assembly in Missouri, and Tonawanda Engine plant in New York. This leaves 508 employees still awaiting transfer, according to the Free Press.
"There are employees that are still in the process of being placed," said GM spokesperson Dan Flores, confirming that the publication’s numbers were accurate. "We will have opportunities at other locations as we work our way through 2019, including at Bowling Green, Kentucky, and Arlington, Texas, as they prepare for launches."
While uprooting families is never a good thing, at least GM is trying to find good jobs out of state for affected employees. Hopefully, the move isn’t too harsh on them.