Fairfax fallout: GM’s shift to electric vehicles prompts wave of layoffs across KC metro
As General Motors assembly lines in Fairfax prepare for a nap next year, paving the way for a $390 million investment in electric vehicle production, the auto manufacturing giant and a handful of its Kansas City area suppliers have signaled they’ll cut some jobs for good.
Beginning in November, production will slow at the commercial hub in Kansas City, Kansas, the effects of which will cascade across the Missouri River and into the Northland. Five metro area companies that do business with General Motors recently notified workers of plans to either suspend operations or shut down entirely.
The sprawling Fairfax plant, which boasts 95 acres of manufacturing and employs 2,275 workers, makes the midsize models Chevrolet Malibu and Cadillac XT4. Last year the company announced the Malibu would be discontinued. Starting next year the plant will be equipped to produce the Chevy Bolt EV, an all-electric vehicle.
In its first round, General Motors plans to lay off 936 of its Fairfax employees. Of those, 686 are union workers whose layoffs will be temporary. Another 250 temporary employees’ jobs will be eliminated, according to the company.
The second phase in January will temporarily affect 759 employees as the “retooling and construction” process is ongoing through the first half of 2025, according to a WARN letter submitted to the Kansas Department of Commerce last week.
Suppliers of parts and services to General Motors have also submitted legally required workforce notifications to Missouri and Kansas agencies. In all, the changeover at General Motors Fairfax and at suppliers spell out 945 local jobs that will go away in the coming months.
The largest concentration of permanent layoffs is in the heavily industrialized town of Riverside, Missouri.
Yanfeng, an international automotive parts supplier headquartered in China, alerted Missouri officials last week its Riverside plant will permanently close. The facility, which manufactures parts for General Motors, will lay off its 444 employees, including roughly 400 represented by United Auto Workers Local 710, a little more than a year after the company’s production floor organized.
Also losing jobs in Riverside are union auto workers and non-union employees of Adient, a seat manufacturer. Citing “the conclusion of a specific customer’s production needs,” the company said in its official layoff notice that 172 workers would permanently lose their jobs between November and January.
Meanwhile, in Fairfax, OPmobility, a French auto parts maker, notified its 72 non-union employees that its doors will shut Dec. 20. The facility began supplying fuel systems to General Motors in 2015.
Two other commercial service providers — Comprehensive Logistics and Penske — will lay off workers temporarily in line with the production slowdown at General Motors.
Comprehensive Logistics, a warehouser, will pause all operations by January, affecting approximately 18 workers.
Penske offers transportation services for the Fairfax plant. About 70 workers will be laid off temporarily until production picks up again, said Randy Ryerson, a company spokesman.
“Our customer is GM, so we kind of serve their needs,” he said. “We’re trying to meet the workforce with the work they have, and so we’ll be kind of winding down as we get closer to November.”
Dontay Wilson, president of UAW Local 31, which represents Fairfax production workers, said production is expected to be almost entirely nonexistent for six months in 2025. He said the union hopes the work of changing over the plant will move faster, allowing for a quicker return.
The layoffs of auto workers at Fairfax are not news to the UAW members. As the production ramps down, Wilson said members have provisions in the contract with General Motors to offer supplemental unemployment benefits to help bridge the gap.
He said other ideas being considered include establishing a food pantry for workers — something typically organized around strikes.
Wilson said the investment in the plant will put Fairfax in the rare position of producing either electric or gas-powered vehicles. That flexibility offers some peace of mind for union autoworkers looking toward the future who will have work whether the consumer market drives toward electric or internal combustion engines.
“Any time you get a level of investment in your plant, that is inarguably a good thing. That, God willing, brings some stability and job security here,” Wilson said, adding that the Fairfax plant has been “running with virtually no interruptions for the better part of two decades.
“That is kind of unheard of for a car plant,” Wilson said.
A mammoth employer of the Kansas City metro, General Motors’ downtime is expected to have wider economic consequences in the coming months.
For example, the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, estimates the electric generation needs of the Fairfax plant to lessen substantially, reducing the company’s bills in that time. That reduction is estimated to cost the local government at least $1 million next year in public utility fees alone.
