General Motors will begin laying off workers at its Fairfax Assembly plant in November, when production of the Chevrolet Malibu midsize sedan ends.
The automaker said in a filing with the state of Kansas under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act that the first of two waves of layoffs will begin Nov. 18. That first group will include temporary layoffs of 686 full-time workers and layoffs of 250 temporary workers, GM said.
Starting Jan. 12, 759 full-time workers will be temporarily laid off, GM said in the filing.
The Fairfax plant will continue to run its first shift through January, GM said in the filing. Production of the Cadillac XT4 compact crossover will then be paused so the plant can be reconfigured to build the next-generation Chevrolet Bolt EV alongside the gasoline-powered XT4.
GM committed to investing $391 million in the Fairfax plant in its contract with the UAW ratified last fall. The automaker said in May that the plant would be back up and running by the end of 2025.
“To facilitate the installation of new tooling, employees will be furloughed until production resumes in mid-2025. Impacted employees will be supported in accordance with the terms of the UAW-GM agreement,” a GM spokesperson said in a statement. “When production resumes in 2025, Fairfax will produce the new Bolt EV, a product that will once again deliver what customers love about the brand: affordability, range and great technology.”
Messages seeking comment were sent to the UAW and Local 31, which represents workers in Fairfax.
GM’s layoff notice follows another from Chinese supplier Yanfeng, which on Sept. 16 said it would close a plant in Riverside, Mo., to coincide with the end of Malibu production. The Yanfeng plant closure will eliminate 444 jobs.
The Bolt EV, which is based on GM’s legacy battery architecture, will stop production in 2023 at GM’s Orion Assembly plant near Detroit so it can be repurposed to build the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra full-size electric pickup trucks. GM has said the Bolt will be redesigned based on GM’s Ultium EV platform in 2025.