General Motors will put five plants, including two in Michigan, up for possible closure and lay off 14,700 factory and white collar workers. The layoffs and possible closures come as GM restructures to cut costs and put more focus into autonomous and electric vehicles.

Most of the factories on the chopping block are those that build vehicles that will not be sold in the US after next year. It is unclear at this time if all five plants will close, or if they will be given different vehicles to build.

Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly in Detroit and Warren Transmission Operations in Warren are two of the five plants GM could close down. The other three are in Canada, Ohio, and Maryland.

More than 6,000 factory workers could lose their jobs if these plants close down. However, transferring to one of the still-thriving SUV or truck plants (like Flint's) may be an option for some.

The restructuring will also eliminate 8,100 white collar workers. According to WNEM, they have offered buy-outs to nearly 18,000 eligible workers. GM is still hiring despite the cuts, they are looking for people with knowledge in software, electric, and autonomous vehicles.

Despite closing up to five plants and laying off thousands of people, GM is still building a new state of the art parts processing center in Burton, that could bring jobs to our area after its completion in early 2019. Hopefully, some arrangement can be made where workers from plants in danger can be transferred to the new Burton facility.

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