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Profit-sharing checks coming to GM workers
By Kalea Hall
LORDSTOWN
The Mahoning Valley will receive a boost with profit-sharing checks coming to 3,000 workers at the General Motors Lordstown Complex.
Across the company, about 50,000 GM factory workers will get $11,750 profit-sharing checks.
“It’s fantastic that our members will be able to share in the profits of our company,” said Glenn Johnson, president of the United Auto Workers Local 1112 that represents the 3,000 GM Lordstown employees.
For every billion dollars made in North America, workers receive $1,000, according to the UAW/GM agreement. In North America, the company reported a pretax-profit of $11.9 billion, down slightly from last year’s $12.4 billion.
To receive the full $11,750, a GM employee must work a certain number of hours. Those who don’t have that amount will receive a prorated amount of profit sharing. Last year, the GM Lordstown plant had more than 10 down weeks mostly to adjust inventory levels of its product, the Chevrolet Cruze, a compact car.
GM said it sold 617,000 cars in 2017, down from 736,000 sold in 2016, but the automaker sold more trucks and more crossovers in 2017 than it did in 2016.
“It’s still disappointing that small cars across the sector have taken such a hit,” Johnson said.
On a conference call with analysts Tuesday, GM CEO Mary Barra said the company still looks for opportunities to improve overall performance across the car portfolio.
“We are well-positioned when you look at the fact that it was in the [2015] time frame when we invested in and launched the compact and midsize with the Chevrolet Cruze and Malibu. So we are well-positioned with those being very robust architectures to continue to respond to the marketplace with very little capital investment as we move forward.”
The automaker brought in revenue of $145.6 billion and made $300 million last year, a 96 percent year-over-year decline.
Including the company’s discontinued European operations, GM reported a $3.9 billion loss for the year stemming from charges associated with the new U.S. tax reform and the sale of that European business, Opel/Vauxhall.
GM made $12.8 billion in pretax profits, on par with last year. For the fourth quarter, GM reported revenue of $37.7 billion and a loss of $4.9 billion attributed to the U.S. tax reform.
GM’s earnings report did beat expectations.
“The very strong results we reported this morning demonstrate the earnings power of our core business and extend our track record of meeting our commitments,” Barra said on the conference call.
In its earnings report, GM touted its advancements with the electric car and the success of its crossovers and trucks.
“Cars don’t seem to be the big focus,” said Jessica Caldwell, executive director of Industry Analysis at Edmunds.com.
Ford reported 2017 revenue of $156.8 billion and income of $7.6 billion for the year.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles reported 2017 revenue of $110 billion euros or $137 billion U.S. dollars.