With closure to the American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings strike in sight, General Motors is pushing forward to resume production at the idled and slowed plants -- assuming UAW members approve a tentative contract later this week. As of Monday, the following plants were back in operation:
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Bay City, Mich. (engines, transmissions, components)
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Flint, Mich., North and South (engines, components)
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Livonia, Mich. (engines, components)
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Parma, Ohio (components)
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Romulus, Mich. (engines)
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Saginaw, Mich. (metal casting)
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Silao, Mexico (engines)
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St. Catharines, Ontario (engines, components)
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Tonawanda, N.Y. (engines)
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Willow Run, Mich. (transmissions)
Each week the strike has dragged out, GM has lost significant production (29,925 vehicles were lost in the week ending April 26 alone). If GM cannot boost additional manufacturing output, by the end of this week the total number of lost units could be as high as 285,503. Even if the American Axle strike is settled, the UAW is still striking at GM's Fairfax assembly plant over the role of seniority in job placement. That labor dispute alone is costing the company 4,627 units each week.
[Source: Automotive News, subs. req'd]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Kwesi @ May 21st 2008 7:30PM
why do employees have to be so badmind. dont they see they are ultimately hurting themselves? i mean, if GM goes broke...whos gonna pay them/. and considering current economic problems,..where are they gonna work? they need to settle themselves, for their own benefit.
nikola @ May 21st 2008 8:03PM
GM is not gonna go broke over SENIORITY PLACEMENT.
Here's a better question. If manufacturing workers are devalued to the point where they can't afford their mortgages (see current housing crisis) or even those shiny kmart-quality cars GM pushes out, who will be left to buy their product? Showrooms will become musems at the rate things are going. But hey, GM will have a niiiice profit margin...if anybody were left to buy their cars.
jgp @ May 21st 2008 10:44PM
People with, you know, skills to work in jobs other than an assembly line can and will buy their product.
I'd love to see a complete phase-out of unskilled labor--just replace them with machines. It'll create skilled jobs for the engineers needed to create them.
dc11 @ May 21st 2008 7:32PM
Sometimes I gotta wonder... does this even matter? and isn't this actually helping GM since they have a huge inventory that can't sell regardless...
Adam Marcello @ May 21st 2008 7:33PM
Is there a way to effectively strike the union by buying non-union cars and still be able to buy something american?
Tai @ May 21st 2008 7:46PM
Buy a Tundra.
Chris @ May 21st 2008 7:52PM
Hurting workers by helping workers? You're an idiot, just buy whatever you want.
ASEVENCFOUR @ May 22nd 2008 8:40AM
Buy a Mazda or Volvo - Not American but related to Ford, they practically do all the heavy lifting for Ford.
Driver X @ May 21st 2008 7:37PM
The truck plants may open short term but they will be closing soon. Dealers do not want truck inventory! Gas and Diesel fuel prices are killing truck sales. Unless we have a major drop in fuel prices truck sales will never rebound.
Mr. Oak @ May 22nd 2008 11:10AM
That was a rather fatalistic, short-sighted look at things. There will always be a need for trucks. People are just reacting to sticker shock. The entire ecomony is in the market. Construction is at a standstill. It'll probably be 6 months to 1 year before things begin to improve. Ever heard of the "Great Depression"? Well, we recovered from that. Wouldn't hurt have a government that is of some service or help to its citizens, as opposed to one that keeps compounding the problems.
Trucks are very useful, it how America gets her work done. I don't own a truck, never did. I may buy an old junker for hauling stuff around, hate hauling lumber and other hardware in a luxury sedan.
Mr. Oak @ May 22nd 2008 11:12AM
should have read: The entire economy is in the TOILET.....
Westside T.O. @ May 21st 2008 7:41PM
Wait, Mexican plants are UAW run as well?
3cubed (4squared plus 2squared) @ May 21st 2008 9:28PM
My thoughts exactly. They should bring a plant to the Texas panhandle. As a college student I would gladly work for 10$+ an hour.
Aprime @ May 21st 2008 10:13PM
You really have no idea how unions work do you?
Shut your mouths, boys.
Westside T.O. @ May 21st 2008 10:48PM
Aprime, relax 'boy'. I have witness union operation firsthand. I was just surprised to know that the UAW operated outside of the US. Here in Canada we have the CAW which operates with the same BS but under a different name. I guess I just assumed that there was either no union or just an MAW if there were union factories down there.
Mr. Oak @ May 22nd 2008 11:20AM
Westside: The Mexican plants may not be union run, don't need to be. If they sit downstream from a UAW plant in the manufacturing process, and rely on them for components, guess what?
I don't think GM minds the shut down of the truck lines, but pinching off the flow of Malibus and Lambdas are hurting their bottom line.
Westside T.O. @ May 22nd 2008 11:37AM
Oak:
Thanks that definitely makes sense, and thanks for the clarification I was looking for. The Mexican plant was closed due to the strike in an indirect manner; not because that plant is actually UAW run.
Threader @ May 21st 2008 7:49PM
I wish more specific information were available about what 285,000 units? What sells are 6 speed transmissions and the 3.5L v6 and various L I4 engines.
If any of those 285,000 units are for V8 trucks and SUV except for Hybrids then who the F--k really cares! In what fantasy world would GM be selling these to? These stats are mostly nonsense without more valid specifics.
Aprime @ May 21st 2008 10:14PM
... More like 3.6L
psarhjinian @ May 21st 2008 8:51PM
Doesn't GM have something like a 60-120 day inventory on just about everything? I mean, I understand this hurts custom builds, constricts cash flow and idles a lot of plants, but it also reduces an awfully massive inventory charge that sitting on their books.