John,
I received a call from my contact and I have the answer to your question.
I was told that approximately 20% of the salaried staff is on "lay-off" with no projected return date. Approximately 10% of the hourly workers are also gone and that number is expected to increase as vehicle sales decline. This person has been with this company under the different names and ownership for more than 6 years and they told me that never, not once, have salaried personnel been called back after a lay-off. In their opinion, these people are no longer with the company and will never be called back. The people who were laid-off in the action just before the most recent one were given return projections, but now everyone knows that this will absolutely not happen.
The also told me that a related company (the other half of the split of this giant) is doing the same, but the ratios are 15% salary and 10% hourly.
Both of these companies required all employees to take this week as vacation, and if they had no vacation left, it would be booked against next years vacation. In addition, both of these companies plus Ford (Ford information is not yet confirmed) will have to take the week before and after the Christmas as vacation and the second week will be unpaid. This week has always been a paid vacation week.
On a completely unrelated topic, I have had to push a customer and madman who claims that releases for GM trucks are increasing. I am wondering if there is to be a very short-lived rebound in large truck sales because gas is below $2. So far only one of five customers using this product have confirmed any increase in GM truck releases, so I consider this information very questionable at the present time. This same madman customer told me that all other vehicle lines we supply except trucks are way down and trending lower.
My companies best launch for the 2009 model year was selling very, very well, and just in the last 2 weeks I've seen releases slashed by 40-60%. This one program was the star of 2009 for my company and it looks like it too is about to flame-out.
Last, I have mentioned before that there is a rather elite firm in Detroit that has always been my bellweather for the "fat" in automotive. I learned today that many of the higher level execs (mostly ex-OEM management) have been let go in the past two weeks. This company has only one real strength and that is their people and contacts. This is a very bad sign that things are about to get much worse, as this is a trend that can be verified by measuring the size of this company during each economic downturn. More pain is coming soon, and I have no doubt about this.
Ain't I just a bundle of joy <ng>
GT
TH |
