PLYMOUTH, Mich.—Automotive seating supplier Adient will furlough all of its corporate work force in the U.S. during two holiday weeks.
The Plymouth-based company confirmed on Oct. 18 that 1,300 non-plant, salaried employees will not work or receive pay for the weeks of Thanksgiving, Nov. 25-29, and New Year's, Dec. 30-Jan 3.
A company spokeswoman said in an email that the five-week United Auto Workers strike against General Motors is to blame.
"While globally Adient has a diversified customer mix, the unplanned loss of sales and profit caused by the GM strike is impacting Adient's Americas region," the spokeswoman said. "Adient decided to act proactively to offset this loss and ensure the company is well-positioned for the long term."
Adient was among suppliers who laid off at least some plant workers linked to the strike at GM, but would not confirm the number of workers affected.
Adient, which spun off from Johnson Controls Inc. in 2016, has had several rounds of layoffs over the past year. Most recently, Adient reported a net loss of $321 million on revenue of $4.2 billion during its fiscal third quarter, compared with net income of $54 million on revenue of $4.5 billion during the same quarter last year.
Adient attributed the reported loss to an about $250 million deferred tax assets impairment, an additional $50 million tax expense and $34 million in restructuring-related charges.
Adient suspended its dividend in 2018 as it reported a fiscal fourth-quarter net loss of $1.35 billion. It has since focused on debt reduction and "financial flexibility."