"General Motors counts initial job losses from SA exit", 22 May 2017

General Motors’ (GM) decision to cease production and sale of its vehicles in South Africa by the end of 2017...is expected to lead to 589 job losses...Labour union fears of potential job losses following the disinvestment have now been confirmed as GM has started with the required section 189 process (the legal process of retrenchments). The company said the number of employees (an estimated 589) to be affected is not yet final. “GM will enter into a consultation with employees and their representative unions to discuss all possible options going forward,” GM’s spokesperson Denise van Huyssteen told Moneyweb...It’s unclear whether the predicted  number of employees to be affected includes direct employees of the plant and companies along its value chain. The latter might swell the number of retrenchments well above 589...The National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa (Numsa), whose members are GM employees, has accused the company of not consulting it about the sale of the plant. Numsa’s general secretary Irvin Jim said the union is consulting its lawyers about the job losses as it’s not certain that Isuzu would absorb all employees who work at GM’s operations. “We are concerned that GM has already indicated that it might retrench workers…If these discussions are indeed taking place then it is likely that GM knows how many employees will be retained, and how many will be retrenched,” said Jim.