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GM Shuffles the Deck: 300 Call Center Agents Moved, 104 Factory Workers Laid Off

By Jacqueline Lee
Contributing Writer

Good unemployment numbers out of Washington today are no consolation for 104 General Motors (News - Alert) workers at the company’s Flint, Mich., engine plant.

The workers, who comprised about half of the third shift at the Flint Engine Operations Plant, lost their jobs because GM has shifted production of the 1.4-liter Buick Encore engine to GM Korea.

The third shift at Flint had been added to build the engines for shipment to Korea, where the rest of the Buick Encore is assembled. According to GM spokesman Tom Wickham, the positions were never intended to be permanent.

“We had planned on this happening because Flint Engine has been building and exporting 1.4-liter engines to Korea until GM Korea could begin production of the same engine,” Wickham explained.

In other news, GM also announced that it would shift 300 call center employees from their current locations to its Warren Tech Center. GM will not cut call center jobs, but plans to house the same number of agents in fewer call centers, according to the Detroit Free Press.

GM is also moving social media jobs to its Renaissance Center headquarters. These are agents who reach out to customers on Twitter (News - Alert), Facebook and popular online vehicle forums.

“We’re not waiting for customers to come to us,” said Alicia Boler-Davis, GM’s vice-president of global quality and U.S. customer experience. “We proactively reach out to offer support and open a dialogue with our Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac customers.”

GM hasn’t released information about which call center buildings it intends to transition out. IBM (News - Alert), which manages GM’s call center contracts, also kept mum.

“[We] continue to be their technology provider in their transformation of their customer engagement center and will continue to provide extensive services to support GM,” IBM spokeswoman Trink Guarino stated.