General Motors to Close IT Innovation Center in Chandler, Arizona, Resulting in Job Cuts
The recent announcement of General Motors (GM) closing its Arizona IT Innovation Center has sent shockwaves through the community, according to ChandlerNews.com.
The closure is scheduled for October 31, as reported by KTVK-TV.
“Today’s announcement that GM plans to close its Arizona IT Innovation Center came as a complete surprise,” said Micah Miranda, the economic development director.
“We’ve recently been working with their local team about higher education partnerships, mentoring, and a promotional video highlighting Chandler’s Price Corridor. With this unfortunate news, we plan to work closely with our workforce development partners to assist with employment opportunities for those impacted,” Miranda added.
Employees, like Erik Gronseth, were informed about the closure during a staff meeting, leaving them with little time to prepare for the news.
“There wasn’t too much of any forewarning of what to expect. Some of us jokingly thought maybe this was going to be along the lines of ‘meet some new coworkers,’ but it’s unfortunate that it turned out the way it did,” Gronseth shared.
Gronseth is among the few employees who will not be affected by the layoffs.
“That was a bit of relief, bittersweet relief, as we knew a lot of people,” he added.
These job cuts come at a challenging time for many, with critics of President Joe Biden’s administration attributing economic hardships to his policies.
GM had already laid off around 200 engineers before the Arizona layoffs, as reported by the Detroit Free Press.
The decision to close the IT Innovation Center was communicated through a company-wide email, where Stacy Lynett, GM’s vice president of Information and Digital Technology, explained the rationale behind the move.
“Today we announced the difficult decision to cease IDT (information and digital technology) operations at the Arizona IT Innovation Center at the end of October. This decision was not an easy one, but it will help to optimize our innovation center footprint and gain the efficiencies and effectiveness we need to have to continue to support the company,” Lynett wrote.
GM representative Kevin Kelly emphasized that the closure was aimed at increasing efficiency rather than reducing costs.
“We’re rationalizing the number of IT innovation centers we have in the country,” Kelly explained.
“We’re keeping the other three. But as we look at efficiencies, there were some redundancies, and that’s why we decided to remove one of the centers,” he added.
The Chandler facility, which opened in 2014, will be closing its doors, while GM’s other IT centers in Warren, Michigan; Austin, Texas; and suburban Atlanta will remain operational.
Source: The Western Journal
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