Roughly 14,000 workers will lose their livelihoods this year when General Motors shutters five factories in the United States and Canada. As employees on the factory floor are getting laid off, GM executives are profiting handily from stock buybacks, and the company received a hefty benefit from the Trump tax cuts. AFT President Randi Weingarten said, “This is a devastating blow to working families in Michigan and Ohio. Idling these plants doesn’t just affect the people who work in them, it thwarts the economic engine of their entire communities. When a large employer shuts down, mothers, fathers, firefighters, teachers and small business owners across the area are harmed too, by the effects of the draconian job loss in that community.”