REPORT: Largest American Axle plant to idle as work shifts to Mexico
Blaming the current economic conditions and still wounded from a near-fatal labor strike, Detroit-based auto supplier American Axle & Manufacturing Inc. will reportedly lay off at least 500 workers at its largest plant and send the remaining jobs south of the border to Mexico. This time last year, the manufacturer was embroiled in an ongoing UAW labor dispute. The strike crippled General Motors, eventually forcing the automaker to stop production on many of its popular trucks before American Axle reached terms with the union and ended the strike after three months. The dispute couldn't have come at a worse time. Its resolution last spring was followed by a plummeting economy dumping vehicle production, choking GM's demand for American Axle components (accounting for 74% of the floundering supplier's sales).
Founded in 1994, American Axle will start moving the facility's production to Guanajuato, Mexico over the summer. More than 500 of the 700 workers at the Detroit complex will be laid off indefinitely, and only 232 of the company's most senior workers will likely have jobs remaining when the dust settles later this year. Thanks for the tip, Farzin.
[Source: The Detroit Free Press]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Jake B 4:39PM (4/29/2009)
The unions sent work outside of the country? Big surprise.
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Harley Cook 4:40PM (4/29/2009)
Where is the bailout money from Mexico? U.S. and Canadian taxpayers get hit and Mexico gets the jobs?
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the_MVP_X 4:46PM (4/29/2009)
Yep, mexicans sent back swine flu.
AZZO45b 5:20PM (4/29/2009)
MVP-X: If you are joking... its semi-funny.
If you are trying to pass FACTS... Swine Flu came to America via AMERICAN kids (from a Catholic private school) returning from a Spring Break trip in Cancun area
Chet 6:48PM (4/29/2009)
@AZZO45b: guess again dummy. It came from within mexico. But I guess that it is always someone else's fault, isn't it...
BrianFL 4:40PM (4/29/2009)
Insert Union hatred and blame below:
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Big Rocket 5:06PM (4/29/2009)
@BrianFL: In a clear case of the union driving up labor costs and pushing jobs offshore, I would say it deserves all the hatred and blame it gets.
notYou 5:29PM (4/29/2009)
It's always great to see the non-hating haters preemptively point to non-existant hate as an example that such hate exists, even if it's not there, so as to persuade others that they aren't haters when they are.
BTW, you were too late, it's up above [snicker].
Len_A 7:38PM (4/29/2009)
These guys at American Axle voted "yes" on a contract that cut their pay by two-thirds, with a buy-down (lump sum payment). They're already at low wages, even in comparison to non-union companies. AAM is caught between a rock and a hard place, because even with newly lowered wages, they're not going to get enough business with GM's nine week shutdown, to get the cash flow to pay bills in the next quarter, and still survive.
Big Rocket 9:33PM (4/29/2009)
@Len_A: Less than 1 year ago, the UAW was striking American Axle, and GM had to step in and pay the ransom to end the strikes. The ransom money was $218 million (of which $18 million alone was for supplemental benefits!), on top of over $800 million in lost sales for GM. That was well over $1 Billion that the UAW screwed out of GM, not to mention however much money the UAW screwed out of American Axle. There's no other way to say this: In the recent past, the UAW used threats of strikes or actual strikes to extort huge sums of money from automakers and auto suppliers, and now the cost of doing business in America at unionized factories is too high to sustain. So it took the near collapse of the auto industry, and Billions of taxpayer's bailout dollars, for the UAW to finally cut wages and benefits down to reasonable levels, and the public is supposed to show sympathy for the parasites all of a sudden? The UAW and all of its members truly deserve all the hatred and blame they get.
Autoblog, Apr 30, 2008: "The two-month long American Axle strike also cost GM about $800 million..."
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/04/30/gm-posts-3-25-billion-loss-in-q1/
Autoblog, May 19, 2008: "The UAW strike at American Axle has ground on for three months... General Motors had pledged $200 million dollars to help get things rolling again after being forced to idle plants... the automaker's managed to shake loose another $18 million to pay for supplemental unemployment benefits, bringing its total commitment to $218 million..."
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/19/end-of-axle-strike-costs-gm-218m/
Mike 4:42PM (4/29/2009)
They said they will idle the plant not shutter it.
http://detnews.com/article/20090429/AUTO01/904290334/1148/auto01/American+Axle+plans++significant++idling+at+Detroit+complex
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Kumar 5:09PM (4/29/2009)
Navistar in Indianapolis is going through something similar. It's a plant in Alabama that gets to stay open, while the Indy facility was idled then closed.
mcampasini 4:45PM (4/29/2009)
pretty soon we are all going to be unemployed and living on the streets or in the woods like cave men.
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Coolio 4:54PM (4/29/2009)
Cavemen lived in caves, hence the name.
lol
Jake B 5:00PM (4/29/2009)
If you lived in the woods wouldn't you be a woodsman?
Kumar 5:07PM (4/29/2009)
Didn't cave men live in, well, caves? ;)
LoneWolf 5:39PM (4/29/2009)
Resting by my fire. Looking deep into it's flames.
My mind must have been somewhere else
Far beyond these plains.
I am suddenly aware of a pair of eyes staring at me.
I turn around and behold the most ugly thing I have seen.
The woman standing in the glade like a shadow in the night
Points her wretched finger at me with a wretched smile
And she asks me in a voice that sounds as if it's been so long
since she spoke, if I seek magic then I should come along
LoneWolf 4:46PM (4/29/2009)
LOL @ "marxist president". Call him what you want, but please inform yourself about the words you are using..
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mcampasini 4:46PM (4/29/2009)
why do you have to go there hes been in office 3 months hes not a miracle worker blame the last guy who was there 8 years..........
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John 5:07PM (4/29/2009)
Or better yet blame the guy who signed NAFTA the 8 years prior...