A Chevrolet Bolt EV is on display at the General Motors Orion Assembly plant Friday. The automaker will lay off 2,000 at its Ohio, Michigan plants. (Duane Burleson/AP)

AUTO INDUSTRY

GM will lay off 2,000 at Ohio, Michigan plants

Shifting demand from cars to trucks and SUVs is forcing General Motors to lay off more than 2,000 workers indefinitely at two assembly plants in Ohio and Michigan starting in January, the company said Wednesday.

GM said it will suspend the third shifts at factories in Lordstown, Ohio, and Lansing, Mich., because of the market change, which is growing and shows no sign of abating.

About 1,250 workers will be furloughed at the Lordstown plant, which makes the Chevrolet Cruze compact car, starting Jan. 23. Another 840 will be idled at the Lansing Grand River factory, which makes the Chevrolet Camaro and Cadillac ATS and CTS luxury cars, when their shifts end Jan. 16.

“It’s supply and demand, and right now the demand is not there for what we have,” said Glenn Johnson, president of a United Auto Workers union local at the Lordstown plant.

Sales of the Cruze are down nearly 20 percent this year. ATS and CTS sales are down about 17 percent each, while Camaro sales are off nine percent.

GM doesn’t know when the workers will be called back, said spokesman Tom Wickham. Laid-off workers will get state unemployment benefits and supplemental pay.

— Associated Press

WORKPLACE

Women, men differ in STEM collaboration

Female researchers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) departments tend to have a wider range of collaborators than men, but are still significantly underrepresented, according to a new study.

Northwestern University’s Xiao Han T. Zeng and co-authors studied the publication records of nearly 4,000 faculty members at top U.S. research universities in six STEM disciplines: chemical engineering, chemistry, ecology, materials science, molecular biology and psychology. They included active faculty members as of 2010.

Women had fewer distinct co-authors in total publications, but this was explained by publishing fewer papers during shorter careers, the researchers found.

Female scientists were also less likely than males to publish again with previous co-authors.

In molecular biology in particular, women later in their careers had significantly fewer co-authors per publication than men, the study published in PLoS Biology showed.

Indiana University professor Stasa Milojevic, who was not part of the new study, said the results show “conspicuous male dominance in genomics. Other studies have suggested that women tend to work on less prestigious topics and areas.”

— Reuters

Also in Business

● Generic drugmaker Mylan, which is under investigation over steep price increases for its EpiPen allergy treatment, on Wednesday reported a third-quarter loss due to the cost of a proposed settlement with the U.S. government. Mylan posted a net loss of $119.8 million, or 23 cents per share, compared with a profit of $428.6 million, or 83 cents per share, a year ago. The company has said it agreed to terms of a settlement set at $456 million. The U.S. Department of Justice and other agencies have yet to confirm an agreement. Mylan said it had adjusted earnings of $1.38 per share.

— From news services

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— From news services