Production slowdowns appear to be coming this summer in the auto industry, according to WJR’s Dick Haefner.
Auto workers may not mind the time off, but they will not be happy if their profit-sharing checks are smaller.
Auto plants, already scheduled for downtime and maintenance, may be closed for many more weeks than planned. Four straight months of declining sales will have the companies thinking about adding factory downtime.
Full time workers with seniority at the Detroit-3 will draw most of their 40-hour pay, called sub-pay, but about 30-percent of GM hourly workers are short-term, and not eligible for unemployment checks.
The biggest sales downturn is in passenger cars. At least many of those plants are outside of the U-S.