Help on the way for GM workers losing jobs

By The Nation

 

Jak Punchoopet

 

Labour Minister MR Jatumongkol Sonakul has put his adviser Jak Punchoopet in charge of helping employees of General Motors’ Rayong manufacturing facility secure new jobs after the US automaker announced it will halt Chevrolet production here at the end of the year.

 

Two plants, run by General Motors (Thailand) and General Motors Powertrain (Thailand), employ 1,500 employees.

 

Great Wall Motors has committed to taking over the facilities but has no plans to hire the GM employees, Jak said.

 

Lay-offs are coming for workers in car assembly by the end of June, for those making spare parts in October and for support staff in December, he said.

 

GM and the ministry had discussed mitigation measures and agreed on staff support terms, including severance pay equal to four months’ salary.

The ministry will make sure they’re registered for unemployment benefits and will help them find new jobs, Jak said.

 

The ministry has ascertained with organisations in the Eastern Economic Corridor that there are already 15,132 jobs available in the automotive field.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30382415

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-02-19

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More of Trumps America only to bring manufacturing back to the US , I hope Thailand will jam on the import tax to any GM/Chev vehicles ordered after the closures .

Great Wall Motors has committed to taking over the facilities but has no plans to hire the GM employees

 

Don't understnd, they are buying the car plants but nobody to work in them so they are not going to produce any vehicles ?

48 minutes ago, keith101 said:

More of Trumps America only to bring manufacturing back to the US , I hope Thailand will jam on the import tax to any GM/Chev vehicles ordered after the closures .

Actually believe it is no more production of right hand drive vehicles from other reporting so there will not be any movement of manufacturing.

3 minutes ago, canopus1969 said:

Great Wall Motors has committed to taking over the facilities but has no plans to hire the GM employees

 

Don't understnd, they are buying the car plants but nobody to work in them so they are not going to produce any vehicles ?

they'll bring in their own people...

 

no different to how they brought in their homeland dudes (as FiFos) for the Mines they grabbed NW Australia

General Motors to lay off all 1,500 plant workers in Thailand following sale

By Panarat Thepgumpanat

 

FILE PHOTO: A general view of the General Motors (GM) plant in the Eastern Seaboard Industrial Estate in Rayong province, Thailand February 22, 2011. REUTERS/Chaiwat Subprasom/File Photo

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - General Motors will begin laying off around 1,500 employees in Thailand in June, after announcing the sale of its production plants in the country, a government official said on Wednesday.

 

GM <GM.N> said on Monday it would sell its two plants in the eastern industrial province of Rayong to China's Great Wall Motor <601633.SS>. Its latest moves to retreat from Asia also included winding down its Australian and New Zealand operations.

 

Jak Punchoopet, adviser to the Minister of Labour, told Reuters all of the Rayong plants' employees would be laid off under the terms of GM's sale agreement with Great Wall.

 

"The agreement was only for the sale of the plants and didn't include the transfer of employees," he said.

 

"Their plan is to lay off 1,000 employees in the auto parts manufacturing line in June, and then around 300 to 400 in the assembly line in October," Jak said. The rest of the staff at the two plants would be let go toward the end of 2020, he said.

 

"Everything will be done by the end of the year."

 

GM will abide by Thai labor law and provide severance pay for the affected employees, Jak said, adding that the company will also grant an additional four-month bonus to all employees.

 

Great Wall Motor, one of China's biggest sport-utility vehicle makers, said it will sell cars from the Thai base as part of its plans to go global and tap the Southeast Asian automotive industry, for which Thailand is a hub.

 

GM did not respond to questions about the layoffs.

 

(Panarat Thepgumpanat; Writing by Patpicha Tanakasempipat; Editing by Tom Hogue)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-02-19

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Thailand, the hub of layoffs....................

21 minutes ago, Golden Triangle said:

Thailand, the hub of layoffs....................

what's happening in Thailand; is just one segment a worldwide G.M. shut down of Right Hand Drive vehicle production

1 minute ago, tifino said:

what's happening in Thailand; is just one segment a worldwide G.M. shut down of Right Hand Drive vehicle production

I am well aware of that, I was referring to the wider situation where, in the past few months, quite a few Thai manufacturing facilities have closed unexpectedly.

  

10 minutes ago, tifino said:

what's happening in Thailand; is just one segment a worldwide G.M. shut down of Right Hand Drive vehicle production

Quote

General Motors scraps Holden division, exits right-hand drive markets

https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/general-motors-holden-sales-design-engineering-end/

7 minutes ago, Golden Triangle said:

12 minutes ago, tifino said:

what's happening in Thailand; is just one segment a worldwide G.M. shut down of Right Hand Drive vehicle production

I am well aware of that, I was referring to the wider situation where, in the past few months, quite a few Thai manufacturing facilities have closed unexpectedly.

  

 did any/all of those other closures bring about similar short notice/ severance pay / bonuses as the subject GM situation?

 

Well no surpises there.... Makes me laugh those in another thread arguing the toss that Great Wall would be employing all the GM staff !!!

17 minutes ago, lopburi3 said:

https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/general-motors-holden-sales-design-engineering-end/

No different than any other large organizatiion changing political narratives while slicing and dicing. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/gm-oshawa-closure-1.4921660

30 minutes ago, tifino said:

 did any/all of those other closures bring about similar short notice/ severance pay / bonuses as the subject GM situation?

 

You're active on here and therefore read the news threads with regard to the above, you should know the answer and not need to be spoon fed links or other info.

1 hour ago, tifino said:

no different to how they brought in their homeland dudes (as FiFos) for the Mines they grabbed NW Australia

Yeah FIFO is short for Fit In or <deleted> Off.Obviously the Thais won't "Fit In" so they will have to take the other option.

2 hours ago, webfact said:

 

The ministry has ascertained with organisations in the Eastern Economic Corridor that there are already 15,132 jobs available in the automotive field.

So they saying there is a shortage of 15000 staff? ????????????, they might be related to the ministry of tourism where all is honky dory 

2 hours ago, keith101 said:

More of Trumps America only to bring manufacturing back to the US , I hope Thailand will jam on the import tax to any GM/Chev vehicles ordered after the closures .

As if anybody in N. America can afford to buy a new vehicle made by workers in the UAW what with their pay scale

Can someone explain to me , if there is a shortage of 15000 staff in the industry and 1500 are about to lose their job, why would there be a need to help them and register them for unemployment ? Would they not be all snapped up by companies who are short 15000 staff?

1 hour ago, Golden Triangle said:

Thailand, the hub of layoffs....................

Again, another witty thai visa member with a thoughtless copy pasta post.

 

It would seem that perhaps gm should take the heat here.

 

There is absolutely no shortage of precedent here for gm closing their plants and laying off their workforce they seem to be closing plants almost annually.

 

But make it about thailand if you feel you must despite the fact that their Australia and New Zealand operations as well as any operation outside china, the us, south arerica and south korea have been shut down.

 

 

Some very cheap cars going right now... Must have been made by some very (un) happy workers .....

33 minutes ago, BestB said:

Can someone explain to me , if there is a shortage of 15000 staff in the industry and 1500 are about to lose their job, why would there be a need to help them and register them for unemployment ? Would they not be all snapped up by companies who are short 15000 staff?

 

Your logic won't work here BestB.

 

You see, their logic is that there are 15,000 "imaginary jobs" in the automotive sector in the EEC.

 

So, your logic correctly assumes that these 1,500, or 10% of demand will be snapped up. In the real world, those people would get retrenched and start a new job on the 1st March and the world would be a happy place.

 

But in their Imaginary World, these jobs don't exist. They are part of the smoke and mirrors that is the EEC and the way they are trying to solicit investment from every Government in the world. 

 

...and so the shell game continues...

 

We lose 10,000 tour guides last week. We hiring 10,000 teachers this week. We lose 1,500 automotive jobs today, and magically 15,000 jobs are yet to be filled. 

55 minutes ago, rvaviator said:

Some very cheap cars going right now... Must have been made by some very (un) happy workers .....

I doubt many vehicles were built after the announcement, that would just add more to the pile that need to be firesale, company I work is a tier 1 supplier and all current production and any development of future production was ceased immediately as the PO's were cancelled.

bickering posts removed.

4 hours ago, metempsychotic said:

Again, another witty thai visa member with a thoughtless copy pasta post.

 

It would seem that perhaps gm should take the heat here.

 

There is absolutely no shortage of precedent here for gm closing their plants and laying off their workforce they seem to be closing plants almost annually.

 

But make it about thailand if you feel you must despite the fact that their Australia and New Zealand operations as well as any operation outside china, the us, south arerica and south korea have been shut down.

 

 

It is about economic conditions in Thailand as well as Mazda have moved production of all SUVs back to Japan and several parts manufacturers have closed, laid off staff or temporarily shut down operations as the high Baht and slumping exports bite.

 

That is reality.

 

Expect more of the same until we either get a competent government in or there's an economic crash.

 

 

5 minutes ago, Yadon Toploy said:

It is about economic conditions in Thailand as well as Mazda have moved production of all SUVs back to Japan and several parts manufacturers have closed, laid off staff or temporarily shut down operations as the high Baht and slumping exports bite.

 

That is reality.

 

Expect more of the same until we either get a competent government in or there's an economic crash.

 

 

And that is far more sensible a response than a 1 line cliche.

10 hours ago, Golden Triangle said:

Thailand, the hub of layoffs....................

Must be due to Brexit ????

 

10 hours ago, canopus1969 said:

Great Wall Motors has committed to taking over the facilities but has no plans to hire the GM employees

 

Don't understnd, they are buying the car plants but nobody to work in them so they are not going to produce any vehicles ?

I think the Chinese have no plans to re-hire the existing employees because the replacement positions will pay lower wages.

Or maybe they will extend the offer to the current employees if they want to keep their jobs but at the lower wage?

I'm not sure if the Chinese are also acquiring rights for the product currently built at those factories.

I'd assume they are since it would be very cost-effective for the Chinese to continue running the lines for at least a couple of years, selling the re-badged Colorados etc at a sizeable discount at the existing dealerships (they might want to keep the existing distribution channels), while prepping up a switch to the new products later on.

1 hour ago, unheard said:

I think the Chinese have no plans to re-hire the existing employees because the replacement positions will pay lower wages.

Or maybe they will extend the offer to the current employees if they want to keep their jobs but at the lower wage?

I'm not sure if the Chinese are also acquiring rights for the product currently built at those factories.

I'd assume they are since it would be very cost-effective for the Chinese to continue running the lines for at least a couple of years, selling the re-badged Colorados etc at a sizeable discount at the existing dealerships (they might want to keep the existing distribution channels), while prepping up a switch to the new products later on.

GM will have to pay out redundancies to all staff and would have to be re-employed by GW.

 

Ive not read anything saying what Vehicle they intend to build in the facility but my guess it will be their Haval however production in not expected to commence until first quater 2022 so it may even be the EV Mini they are building for BMW....... all speculation though and only time will tell.

6 hours ago, Yadon Toploy said:

It is about economic conditions in Thailand as well as Mazda have moved production of all SUVs back to Japan and several parts manufacturers have closed, laid off staff or temporarily shut down operations as the high Baht and slumping exports bite.

 

That is reality.

 

Expect more of the same until we either get a competent government in or there's an economic crash.

 

 

 

1-ton pickups

Maker/Brand	2019		2018		Y-o-Y	2019		2018		Y-o-Y
	Dec.	Share	Dec.	Share		Jan.-Dec.	Share	Jan.-Dec.	Share
Toyota	17,128	38.0%	19,429	33.1%	-11.8%	191,669	38.9%	177,047	34.6%	8.3%
Isuzu	14,677	32.6%	20,158	34.3%	-27.2%	153,170	31.1%	162,132	31.7%	-5.5%
Ford	4,593	10.2%	5,883	10.0%	-21.9%	49,841	10.1%	65,145	12.7%	-23.5%
Mitsubishi	4,623	10.3%	5,987	10.2%	-22.8%	49,365	10.0%	52,966	10.4%	-6.8%
Nissan	2,122	4.7%	3,196	5.4%	-33.6%	26,790	5.4%	26,244	5.1%	2.1%
Chevrolet	1,352	3.0%	3,066	5.2%	-55.9%	14,631	3.0%	20,177	3.9%	-27.5%
Mazda	362	0.8%	958	1.6%	-62.2%	5,664	1.2%	7,498	1.5%	-24.5%
MG	109	0.2%	0	0.0%	-%	482	0.1%	0	0.0%	-%
TATA	59	0.1%	40	0.1%	47.5%	478	0.1%	402	0.1%	18.9%
Foton	0	0.0%	0	0.0%	-%	39	0.0%	58	0.0%	-32.8%
Total	45,025	100.0%	58,717	100.0%	-23.3%	492,129	100.0%	511,669	100.0%	-3.8%

Back order of Street sweeper carts being brought forward with Brushes and gloves, help clean the streets of plastic waste .