[Number 3]

So GM has offered buy outs to 18,000 people with 12 years of service or more. No bump in age and service for people to retire early like GM has done for years and years. Just 6 months severance. A couple of thoughts.....


This indicates GM does not value loyal employees. They simply want a younger, cheaper work force. Not sure this falls into an age discrimination thing or not but there was a reason they picked 12 years of service. Anyone hired after 2001 (if I recall correctly) is on a defined benefit 401k only. No pension, no healthcare no early retirement supplement.


GM is clearly focusing on the future and being profitable. Does this allow for low volume low profit cars like the Camaro? They will have a LOT fewer employees to work on programs that don't generate profits now or a technology for the future.


GM may have put a lot of eggs in the EV basket in the out years. We've heard 20 something EVs by 2020. Without a rationale for forcing every OEM to have an EV future, GM may have played a big hand and about to lose the pot. You can't have invested BILLIONS of dollars in an EV future and not make money on them. This may be the underlying reason for this advance protective move.


The folks I know have had wildly varying responses to this from "maybe I'll retire" to "meh" to "holy crap, I wanted to work 3 to 5 more years I'm not near ready"


The deal is if they don't get the number of volunteers they will go find the voluntolds. I've heard anywhere from 20 to 25% for the targeted reductions.

With Ford quietly going through the same reductions and looking to partner VW for EV and Autonomous vehicles, it isn't boding well for the Big 2 and Fiat. Of course Fiat will just keep churning out RAM pickups (awesome product) and Jeep after Jeep after Jeep until the well runs dry.

Is this a slight bump or the first day of the future for the auto industry?