GM CEO Barra to meet with White House's Kudlow following job-cuts announcement
Top White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow will meet with General Motors (GM) CEO Mary Barra on Monday, only hours after the automaker announced more than 14,000 job cuts .
GM will effectively halt production next year at five plants in North America — in Ohio, Michigan, Maryland and Ontario — as well as two plants outside of North America.
The company also plans to cut 15 percent of its salaried workers. The cuts will eliminate more than 14,000 jobs in all, roughly 8,100 white-collar positions and more than 6,000 factory jobs, according to GM.
Overall, GM estimates the reorganization will save about $6 billion a year by the end of 2020.
As the director of the National Economic Council, Kudlow has been cheering President Donald Trump's administration for its economic policies.
"We are the hottest economy in the world right now," Kudlow said last month.
Trump also praised General Motors last year, saying the automaker was "starting the big jobs push back into the U.S." Trump had pledged to revive manufacturing in an Ohio region where GM now plans to slash production and layoff workers.
"Jobs have left Ohio," Trump said in 2017, but "they're all coming back."
GM plans to cut as many as 1,600 factory jobs at a Lordstown, Ohio, plant — 20 miles away from where Trump spoke when he promised to return jobs to the area.
— CNBC's Eamon Javers and Robert Ferris contributed to this report.
