(ConservativeJournal.org) – General Motors (GM) has revealed it will shut down its technology center in Chandler, Arizona, and lay off 936 employees. This decision comes only 18 months after the automaker had plans to expand its workforce by several hundred employees at the Chandler facility.
The facility in question, Arizona Information Technology Innovation Center, was established by GM in 2014. The Chandler facility encompasses 170,000 square feet and is one of GM’s four technology hubs across the United States, along with locations in Texas, Michigan, and one east coast location in Georgia.
GM’s Arizona workforce numbered 1,139 employees earlier this year, with most primarily stationed at the Chandler technology Center. The facility has been a key player in providing services and solutions for GM’s vehicles, particularly as the company transitions towards an all-electric vehicle future. Roles advertised during the facility’s expansion announcement in February 2022 included software data analysts, software developers, business analysts, product managers, and software architects.
GM officially announced these layoffs by submitting a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) on August 23 to the state authorities. The announcement caught local officials in Chandler off guard, especially considering the recent discussions about the facility’s expansion. Micah Miranda, Chandler’s economic development director, expressed his surprise, highlighting the ongoing collaborations between the local team and GM.
In Arizona, GM has a network of 47 dealers and delivered 43,700 vehicles in 2022, contributing to $145 million in taxable wages for its employees in the state during the same year. Despite this recent setback, GM employed over 100,000 people in the United States and around 166,000 worldwide at the beginning of 2023.
The company specified that only employees involved in its IT focused vehicle teams will stay in Arizona and those affected by the layoffs will be given the opportunity to apply for other available positions within the company or severance pay if they decide to leave entirely.
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