GM ‘to lay off 300’ in streamlining drive

By The Nation

 

 

General Motors (Thailand) has reportedly decided to lay off as many as 300 employees at its Rayong plant in order to streamline operations.

 

An official statement from the American automaker did not elaborate on how many jobs would be lost exactly, but according to a local Chonburi-Rayong Facebook page, approximately 300 GM workers will be unemployed by the move.

 

GM Thailand stated that all laid-off employees would be supported accordingly.

 

“We want to succeed in Thailand, which requires continually to deliver improved performance and operational efficiency. As such, it has become necessary to right-size and optimise our operations. We are taking every measure to support employees whose roles are impacted,” GM stated in an announcement on Thursday.

 

 

The new Captiva is assembled in Indonesia.

 

“There is no change in our ongoing business in Thailand – we continue to build and sell world-class trucks, SUVs and engines for Thailand and the world.

 

We continue to focus on delivering great vehicles and experiences to our customers and look forward to launching the all-new Chevrolet Captiva SUV in the Thai market later in 2019,” it added.

 

The latest Captiva, powered by a new 1.5-litre turbo engine, is assembled in Indonesia at the SAIC-GM-Wuling plant and exported to Thailand. It will be officially launched on September 9 in Bangkok.

 

The GM plant in Rayong meanwhile assembles the Colorado pickup truck and its Trailblazer PPV variant.

 

GM sold 9,921 Chevrolet vehicles in Thailand in the first seven months of 2019, a decrease of 10.8 per cent compared to the corresponding period last year.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/business/30375566

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2019-08-30

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and so it starts

 

the harsh reality is not in words and sound bites 

Yes, this is one of the first signs of what's going to be a long drawn out death for the economy.

 

There's always an excuse when it first begins, not so much later when this kind of thing becomes more widespread.

Was talking to a guy yesterday who has been installing new production line robots over the last couple of months in their factory where they make their pickups , seems they are just cutting the workforce and letting the robots do the work!!

Not just Thailand, it's happening worldwide, in fact Thailand is holding up well compared to other countries.

300? That's nothing, Canada and the US bailed out GM after they went bankrupt, then they thanked us by packing up and going to Mexico. Left a tiny workforce, thousands lost jobs. 

Actually this is just a Thai side of the story they are laying off 15% of their global workforce due to move into electric vehicles production that require fewer staff since they are much simpler machines.

 

This is Thai article on the subject from 2 days ago... Google it up for original... https://www.sanook.com/news/7590754

 

The press release indicates that other companies have done this as well so no big deal....it says that they have a need to bring down labour costs. Is this a consequence of the strong Thai baht, or competition from Vietnam and elsewhere. I don't see this as a healthy sign. 

Quote

 

 

8 hours ago, webfact said:

GM sold 9,921 Chevrolet vehicles in Thailand in the first seven months of 2019, a decrease of 10.8 per cent compared to the corresponding period last year.

With the constant Government rhetoric that growth is 3% I really am struggling to see anything booming to make up the deficit - even internally

9 hours ago, LennyW said:

Was talking to a guy yesterday who has been installing new production line robots over the last couple of months in their factory where they make their pickups , seems they are just cutting the workforce and letting the robots do the work!!

At least with a Robot, the work is done to an exacting standard and when its required.

It will also work 24/7 without sicky days and Holidays. This is a realboost for Thailand, as the traditional Thai workforce have become lazy

 

On 8/30/2019 at 4:56 AM, ukrules said:

Yes, this is one of the first signs of what's going to be a long drawn out death for the economy.

 

There's always an excuse when it first begins, not so much later when this kind of thing becomes more widespread.

Not to mention a massive investment by CP chicken group in importing the Chinese made MG. Selling like hotcakes. ????