GM Holden axes 200 jobs

[phillyc]

http://www.theage.com.au/national/ho...0825-ey4l.html

Originally Posted by the age

Holden - owned by General Motors, which recently emerged from bankruptcy protection in the US - is regarded as being in the weakest position of the three local car makers. It recently closed its four-cylinder engine plant at Fisherman's Bend, in a move that affected about 500 jobs, and has cut the hours of production workers at its Elizabeth plant in Adelaide.

Sorry for the people losing their jobs.

But interesting that this writers opinion thinks GMH is the weakest. Also nice to see it mentioned that GMH is owned by GM and they went bankrupt. Is the message finally getting through to the media?

[Fordman]

It's my understanding GMH will go under due to their parent company, looks like its coming out. Ford made the right desicion in making themselves financialy secure earlier.

[GT69]

Its an unfortunate thing. I personally don't really care, It doesn't effect me.

Don't forget the MY10 isn't the VF update, its a 'fill in the blanks' model, Holdens up a creek. That's for sure. So i ask again, how can a company sell over 3600 cars a month for a few years running still be broke?

[FPV+fteT3]

Sorry for the people loosing their jobs but yet they (holden) paid 3mil for T8 race team if I worked there I would definately be looking for someone.......with a bat.

[HSVKILLA]

All this and yet they can still pour in the cash to the triple 8 team swap?????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????? :

[vztrt]

This has been on the cards for a while, been reported a few times. So nothing new.

[mrbaxr6t]

I have been thinking they have been operating on borrowed time since the collapse of GM, and yes how can a company sell 3600 cars a month be in trouble - several ways - making very low profit margins and spending massive dollars on race car teams, or not selling that many cars at all somehow fudging the numbers. I think they will collapse and already have been given a government handout from krudd.

[prydey]

i'm not convinced its as gloomy as some make out. sure they are struggling and this is common knowledge. surely a business man like r.dane would know that hooking up with a manufacturer thats about to go belly up isn't very smart. i'd say they've either pulled the wool over his eyes and convinced him all is ok, or... he has seen enough evidence for himself to confidently affiliate himself with the brand.

if holden did go belly up, there would be a lot of smug looking ford people at a few race meets.

in the real world, if holden do go belly up, its bad news for the aussie auto industry. parts suppliers are already struggling to survive and if a major buyer suddenly disappears, then the suppliers that are left will struggle to survive only supplying ford and toyota.

also, no one needs to be out of work in the current climate.

[vztrt]

Heres a little more on the story.

http://www.goauto.com.au/mellor/mell...25761E001094C0

More jobs go at Holden

White-collar redundancies confirmed as Holden shapes up for a new era

26 August 2009

By RON HAMMERTON

GM HOLDEN is set to shed more jobs with voluntary redundancies among engineering, sales and marketing staff at its Victorian head office and Lang Lang proving ground as it tries to wrestle the company back to profitability in the wake of the global financial crisis.

While the company – Australia’s largest automotive employer – says it has no firm targets or timeframes for the redundancy program, media speculation suggests it is looking for about 200 workers to clear their desks.

The company has now shed about 2000 jobs since 2005, most of them from the blue-collar workforce after the demise of the third shift at the Elizabeth assembly plant in South Australia, with the loss of 1500 workers, and closure last month of the four-cylinder engine factory which employed 500 people in Port Melbourne, Victoria.

In 40 years, the workforce of the once giant manufacturer has shrunk from more than 20,000 employees spread over six factories producing a whole range of cars and trucks in five states, to little more than 6000 today – a decline of almost 75 per cent.

In Adelaide, the remaining 3300 workers in the two-shift Elizabeth car assembly operations have been working a single shift, week on/week off, to avoid further mass redundancies after the cancellation of Holden’s Pontiac G8 export program led a 70 per cent drop in exports, compounded by a 15 per cent decline in domestic Holden sales this year.

The company said the shared roster scheme at Elizabeth was designed to hold the workforce intact until its new small car came on stream at the plant in the third quarter of next year.

Holden, which lost $70 million last year on top of cumulative losses of almost $300 million in the three previous years, asked its white-collar workforce at its modern “HQ191” headquarters and technical centre in Fishermans Bend to take time off in April, by bringing forward annual leave or rostered days off, to help cut company costs.

Since then, some white collar jobs have been lost to natural attrition, but with at least some workers holding out for a redundancy offer, Holden has now wheeled out financial incentives.

The latest job cuts come just before a changing of the guard at Holden, with current chairman and managing director Mark Reuss heading back to the US this month to become GM vice-president of global vehicle engineering.

In June, Mr Reuss was asked at a media conference in Canberra if he could confirm that there would be no more job losses at Holden in the immediate future, he replied: “That’s correct.”

With cuts now announced, his successor, current executive director of sales, marketing and aftersales, Alan Batey, can move into the seat on September 1 with one less thing to worry about. Ironically, many of the current round of redundancies will come from his current area of responsibility – sales and marketing.

Holden spokesman Scott Whiffin said today that the redundancies were fundamentally about ensuring Holden had the right structure to be viable long-term.

"Our goal is to protect the core of what Holden is – a full-function organisation designing, engineering and building large and small cars," he said.

Mr Whiffin said a number of employees had been asking about availability of voluntary redundancy packages.

"We don’t think this will be totally out of left field for many of our people – a number of them have been asking about the availability of voluntary packages,” he said.

Mr Whiffin said some functions at Holden had remained “more or less untouched over the years”, despite changes elsewhere in the organisation as markets have contracted.

Some of the lost engineering jobs are no doubt linked to the scaling back of Holden’s global rear-drive platform program, which has delivered the VE Holden Commodore and export derivatives, as well as the Chevrolet Camaro.

New GM CEO Fritz Henderson has made it clear that these rear-drive products are on borrowed time at GM, and there is little scope for renewed Holden exports to the US beyond a proposed police car project.

Also, the development of Holden’s new small car, based on the same GM Delta II architecture as the new Cruze and latest generation Astra in Europe, is probably well in hand for next year’s launch.

Holden designers and engineers have worked on the hatch version of the small car to be built alongside a sibling sedan – thought to be a local version of the Cruze – and the Commodore sedan and ute ranges from the third quarter of 2010.

With that project heading into the production engineering stage and seemingly little to replace it on the drawing boards apart from regular model updates for the VE/WM ranges, Holden design and engineering would appear to be underemployed from its peak of about two years ago.

South Australian deputy premier and treasurer Kevin Foley credited the small-car program with saving Holden as its parent company in the US went through “its darkest days” in Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

“It has been a near-death experience for Holden, but it has bounced back in the most aggressive and the most successful manner possible,” Mr Foley said recently.

Earlier this year, Holden was granted a $200 million line of credit from the Australian government’s $200 million Export Finance and Insurance Corporation (EFIC) – a deal which was not made public until this month.

According to an EFIC statement, the line of credit – which Holden says has not been used – was to “provide support for GMH exports of vehicles, parts and engineering services to Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia as the Australian manufacturer establishes stronger market links under the newly created General Motors Company”.

Holden recently announced a fresh export deal to supply 20,000 V6 engines over four years to China from Holden’s High Feature V6 plant at Port Melbourne.

[LeadFoot81]

Theyll be right, they can just dip into the 200 million govt lifeline...

I find the way Ford is being run in the States and in Oz really inspiring; securing its own financial independence, streamlining its operations and commiting itself to a strong product lineup.

Whos the quiet achiever who shouldnt be underestimated? Ford, of course.

[whales]

If GMH goes under Ford will be right behind them. Lets all hope that doesn't happen. Good luck to all the employees at Holden who get chopped.
Australia doesn't need this sort of manufacturing problems.

[Bossxr8]

Holden had no money to pay out redundancies recently for the 2nd shift in Elizabeth. How have they now suddenly found money to pay out these redundancies now.

Would they raid the governments $200 million?

[Wretched]

Originally Posted by LeadFoot81

I find the way Ford is being run in the States and in Oz really inspiring; securing its own financial independence, streamlining its operations and commiting itself to a strong product lineup.

Do you really believe Ford would be still around without the local government handouts, grants and other subsidies over the years? If there is any part of the Ford clan that deserves a pat on the back it is Ford of Europe. They potentially are saving grace of the company. Not the US who until the aggressive Mullaly finally brought things into line were bleeding money and were run by a bunch of morons who thought quality and decent products were just fads. Ford here had the same issue when Polities left, they had no direction and were (hopefully not now) simply riding on the success of the BA.

I do feel very sorry for any person who loses their job, no matter which company they're from.
I hope Ford global can ride through these tough times and I do hope GM comes back, without them what incentive does Ford have?

[The G6ET Spot]

In Adelaide, the remaining 3300 workers in the two-shift Elizabeth car assembly operations have been working a single shift, week on/week off, to avoid further mass redundancies after the cancellation of Holden’s Pontiac G8 export program led a 70 per cent drop in exports, compounded by a 15 per cent decline in domestic Holden sales this year.

I wonder how long Holden thinks that the employees can survive on only working and getting paid every second week.
While management continues with their ludicrous salaries.

[Windsor220]

Originally Posted by Wretched

without them what incentive does Ford have?

The multiple other manufacturers in the world

[Wally]

Originally Posted by whales

If GMH goes under Ford will be right behind them. Lets all hope that doesn't happen. Good luck to all the employees at Holden who get chopped.
Australia doesn't need this sort of manufacturing problems.

It's not likely either will go under soon, but if Holden did fold it's local manufacture it's more than likely Ford would follow suit, if only because there would be insufficient income for the outsource companies to survive.

So far the companies collapsing because of the credit squeeze have generally been suprises, while those that have been red flagged have managed to battle through. My guess is that Holden would be the last man standing after a severe drought.

[metalmania]

Why does everyone think that because there may not be enough suppliers here in Australia in the advent of Holden going down that Ford will follow.
Ford will just get their supplies from China or other cheaper Asian countries.
This is what they are waiting for because at the moment an Australian built car has to have a certain content of Australia manufactured parts in it.
If there are no parts manufacturers left in Australia , this is perfect for Ford, they will say oh well we must get parts from overseas without any repecussions from the public or Government.

[vztrt]

Originally Posted by Wretched

Do you really believe Ford would be still around without the local government handouts, grants and other subsidies over the years? If there is any part of the Ford clan that deserves a pat on the back it is Ford of Europe. They potentially are saving grace of the company. Not the US who until the aggressive Mullaly finally brought things into line were bleeding money and were run by a bunch of morons who thought quality and decent products were just fads. Ford here had the same issue when Polities left, they had no direction and were (hopefully not now) simply riding on the success of the BA.

I do feel very sorry for any person who loses their job, no matter which company they're from.
I hope Ford global can ride through these tough times and I do hope GM comes back, without them what incentive does Ford have?

The handout started after the button plan came into action, otherwise we would still have huge tariffs on imported cars.

[The Snout]

But I thought with Cruze here now all is saved.

[Wretched]

Originally Posted by vztrt

The handout started after the button plan came into action, otherwise we would still have huge tariffs on imported cars.

That's fine. All I was getting at was Holden isn't the only one taking handouts and while Ford OZ may be a little better, it isn't all due to "efficient" management. They have had their fair share of handouts too. They all have.

[Wally]

Originally Posted by metalmania

Why does everyone think that because there may not be enough suppliers here in Australia in the advent of Holden going down that Ford will follow.
...........

I'm not sure "everyone" thinks that, but many of us do.

This is what they are waiting for because at the moment an Australian built car has to have a certain content of Australia manufactured parts in it.
If there are no parts manufacturers left in Australia , this is perfect for Ford, they will say oh well we must get parts from overseas without any repecussions from the public or Government.

If this is Ford's strategy, it is not immediately transparent. The latest case in point is the swift appointment by Ford, of an administrator to ACL group. There would be nothing prohibiting them sourcing bearings from China now, given ACL's condition has been known for some time. Logically, if the Falcon was to become mostly foreign parts, it would make better business sense to assemble those parts at point of manufacture, or even better sense just to scrap the Falcon and import high volume production vehicles, change street signs and become a left hand drive nation.