How a company that started when cars had hand cranks grew to become one of the biggest motor corporations in the world: A history of General Motors in pictures as it lays off more than 14,000 staff just weeks before Christmas (14 Pics)

General Motors has revealed it is laying off more than 14,000 people in a major restructuring aimed at generating cash to spend on innova...

General Motors has revealed it is laying off more than 14,000 people in a major restructuring aimed at generating cash to spend on innovation.

The decision left workers wiping away tears just weeks before the holidays and had President Donald Trump threatening on Tuesday to eliminate subsidies in retaliation.

Even though unemployment is low, the economy is growing and U.S. auto sales are near historic highs, General Motors is still forging ahead and closing several plants as part of its plan to save $6 billion. 

Two plants are set to close in Detroit, as well as plants in Ohio and Canada.  It is the biggest restructuring in North America for the U.S. number one car maker since its bankruptcy a decade ago. 

The restructure is also part of GM's shift to abandon many of its car models as it focuses more on autonomous and electric vehicles.

View of the General Motors Company Building at the Century of Progress International Exposition, Chicago, Illinois, 1933. The Century of Progress was the World's Fair held in Chicago to celebrate the city's centennial with a focus on technological innovation

Crowds gather at the General Motors Show back in 1949 to inspect Buick Chassis

General Motors was founded by William 'Billy' Durant  back in 1908.

 Mary T. Barra is the current chairman and CEO of the company

Smoke billows from the General Motors Company transmission plant at Livonia, Michigan as firemen fight a blaze that broke out in August 1953. Built in 1949, the plant employed about 6,400 workers at the time of the fire

President Trump threatened to punish General Motors following the company's decision to shutter Midwest manufacturing plants and lay off thousands of U.S. workers.

A day after the news of the layoffs rattled the industry and raised a potential political problem for the president, the president followed up on an earlier threat that the automaker 'better damn well' open a new plant.

He threatened to yank subsidies for electric cars – as GM seeks to reconfigure its supply chain, jettison unpopular models, and refocus on vehicles it thinks will sell in the future.

It's a long walk along the slowly-moving assembly line at the Oshawa South plant of General Motors where the buildings cover 165 acres. To save time getting from one place to another, workers rode bicycles along controlled pathways. The worker above is pictured in 1973

'Very disappointed with General Motors and their CEO, Mary Barra, for closing plants in Ohio, Michigan and Maryland. Nothing being closed in Mexico & China,' Trump tweeted Tuesday.

 GM, which was founded by William 'Billy' Durant, has a long history in the U.S. and across the world that dates back to 1908, at a time when there were fewer than 8,000 automobiles in the States. 

Under the leadership of William C. Durant, the General Motors Company was founded to consolidate several companies producing Buick, Oldsmobile, Cadillac, Oakland (later Pontiac), Ewing, Marquette, and other autos as well as Reliance and Rapid trucks. GM introduced the electric self-starter commercially in its 1912 Cadillac, and this invention soon made the hand crank obsolete.

By 1929 General Motors had surpassed the Ford Motor Company to become the leading American passenger-car manufacturer. It added overseas operations, including in the UK and Australia,in 1931.

In 1941 it was making 44 percent of all the cars in the United States and had become one of the largest industrial corporations in the world.  General Motors grew along with the American economy in the 1950s and ’60s and continued to hold 40–45 percent of total U.S. automotive sales.

A 'futuristic' delivery truck specially-designed for the General Motors Parade of Progress which toured North America, from 1936, to promote the company's new lines

Workers pour out of General Motors Frigidaire plant in Canada at the end of their shift in 1970

Exterior of kiln and mill building in Detroit, Michigan, in 1923. Fisher Body was an automobile coachbuilder which became a division of General Motors in 1926

General Motors caused outrage when it revealed this week it was laying off more than 14,000 people in a major restructuring. GM, pictured above at the New York World's Fair in 1939, has a long history in the U.S. and across the world

A Thai worker welds the frame of a Chevrolet Zafira car on the assembly line of US auto giant General Motors in August 2000

By the early 21st century GM had shares in a number of car companies, including Isuzu, Fuji Heavy Industries (Subaru), and Suzuki.  But the company was badly affected by the economic bust of 2008. That year, President Bush announced an emergency financial rescue plan to aid the “Big Three” automakers— Chrysler, General Motors, and Ford—to prevent the collapse of the country’s struggling auto industry.

However, GM’s strong rebound faced a setback in 2014, when it was revealed that for about a decade the company had covered up the fact that several car models had faulty ignition switches; it was believed that the defective part had caused more than 120 deaths. 

This week's devastating news marks yet another significant chapter in the turbulent history of the  110-year-old company.

Daewoo Motor employees work in an assembly line at the Daewoo Motor factory in South Korea back in 2002

General Motors revealed this week it is laying off more than 14,000 people in a major restructuring aimed at generating cash to spend on innovation. The decision left workers in tears on Tuesday in Oshawa, Ontario