DETROIT – GM’s strong-fourth quarter profit could mean good news for the automaker’s employees.
2020 was a hard year, but GM left the year with impressive earnings, beating Wall Street expectations.
READ: GM 2020 profit drops, but it makes $6.43B despite pandemic
The automaker made $9.7 billion for the year -- $3.7 in the fourth quarter.
2019′s fourth quarter only had $105 million due a 40-day long national strike during contract negotiations. For the full year, GM made $8.4 billion.
United Auto Workers members are looking to get profit-sharing checks. The checks are estimated to be about $9,000 -- a grand more than what they received in 2019′s profit-sharing.
In 2018, UAW members received $10,750.
The coronavirus pandemic shut down GM production for a few months, which is why Autotrader analyst and Cox Automotive automotive relations director Michelle Krebs is so impresses with what the company has accomplished.
“I remember back in March and April, it was like when we were in the Great Recession,” Krebs said. “We had no idea what was going to happen. It looked like doom and gloom, but I think it’s been absolutely remarkable how the auto industry has rebounded and how well GM has done through this.”
GM warned this might not be smoothing sailing yet due to a semiconductor shortage that is forcing automobile production cuts. The automaker is using the semiconductors on the vehicles that sell more so that the underselling vehicles are produced at a lower volume without the semiconductors, which would be replaced later.
More: Auto News