Adient plc will furlough all of its corporate workforce in the U.S. during the holiday season.
The Plymouth, Mich.-based seating supplier confirmed to Crain's Friday morning that 1,300 non-plant salaried employees will not be working or receive pay for the weeks of Thanksgiving, Nov. 25-29, and New Year's, Dec. 30-Jan. 3.
Mary Kay Dodero, director of communications for Adient, said in an email that the five-week UAW strike of General Motors Co. 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," Dodero said in an email. "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.
While the UAW and GM announced a tentative settlement Oct. 16, workers have not gone back to work yet.
The supplier has struggled financially since spinning off from Johnson Controls Inc. in 2016, resulting in several rounds of layoffs over the past 12 months. 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 attributes the reported loss to an approximately $250 million deferred tax assets impairment, an additional $50 million tax expense and $34 million in restructuring-related charges.
In 2018, Adient suspended its dividend as it reported a fiscal fourth quarter net loss of $1.35 billion. It has since focused on debt reduction and "financial flexibility."
Despite financial pressures and the strike's impact, Adient has been favored by Wall Street.
Its shares have risen more than 49 percent to $24.46 as of the close of business Thursday.