REPORT: Two plants saved from closing under new GM/UAW agreement
According to the Detroit Free Press, the 14 plants that General Motors is expected to announce for closure on Monday was going to be 16 plants until the UAW got its way on Capitol Hill. The union charged GM with closing factories, but instead of a commensurate reduction in production, GM was moving some of the manufacturing elsewhere, specifically China and Mexico.
GM said it will produce 1.83 million cars in the U.S. 2014 as opposed to 2 million today, and it would get one-third of its production that year from overseas. That one-third would notably be small cars, so much in play lately for every reason. The UAW suggested it would be amenable to "innovative labor agreement provisions" in order to make small car production work for GM domestically.
In that case it isn't Mexico or China that will suffer, but Canada. Our northern neighbor is expected to lose 23% of its GM export production (has anyone told CAW head Ken Lewenza yet?) while Asian importation climbs 98%.
For now, an assembly plant and a stamping plant have been spared from the initial list of U.S. closures. Another four plants have been designated "stand-by locations" that will come on line in case of a steep rebound in auto sales.
[Source: Detroit Free Press]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
geo.stewart 2:24PM (5/30/2009)
funny that the car shown is a non-saved vehicle (Saturn), but I expect they build them all on the same line.
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harlanx6 2:35PM (5/30/2009)
Interesting! The Obama Labor Party and the UAW running the show. In effect, the livestock running the farm.
Survivial or maintaining the labor stranglehold, now there is an interesting choice for a government bought and paid for by organized labor!
The only question is how many ways they can spin this to continue to lay the blame for everything on the Bush administration and the Republicans (who haven't had control of congress (who has the responsibility for oversight) for years)?
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elprogramer 2:45PM (5/30/2009)
You have no idea what concessions were involved to make this decision. Please refrain from further making yourself look like the fool you are.
Rogue_G 2:49PM (5/30/2009)
How convenient for you that the Democrat's control over Congress just so happened to qualify for 'years' with only 2 under its belt? Or have we so quickly forgotten the previous 6 years the Republicans had before that, while Bush was still prez?
You're just another slack-jawed mouth breather, so go back to playing the victim in an economy that your Republican party is responsible for in its entirety. DIAF!
harlanx6 3:22PM (5/30/2009)
Epigrammer:
By attacking me personally instead of making any point you have revealed your lack of substance in the typical manner of the politically correct.
I made made my point with a question. You contributed nothing.
cdwrx 3:26PM (5/30/2009)
Right, where does new ownership get off telling GM how to run its business? Just because they have ownership gives them the right to make decisions? Inconceivable.
harlanx6 3:32PM (5/30/2009)
Rogue G:
How typical of the politically correct to attack personally instead of any substantive discussion. I made my point with a question that could have been answered. You merely revealed your lack of substance with a personal attack. You contributed nothing. You are probably very young, because that is a reaction of immaturity. That is not an attack, just an observation. I didn't count, but how many ways did you spin the subject to make sure all blame rested with the Republicans as I predicted.
Ken Stamper 4:26PM (5/30/2009)
How about this for a non-personal attack? GM buried themselves under this mess without any government help. They were non-competitive. They have voluntarily taken huge government loans to save themselves. Given the tough conditions the the government has imposed on them, they are finally making the kind of decisions they were too chickens**t to make on their own (closing plants, cutting UAW/CAW wages and benefits, eliminating non-performing brands, bothering to build actual cars instead of giant SUVs, etc.) Now, as the new owners, damn right Obama is going to have a say in what they build. Tough nuts. GM has no one to blame but themselves for the situation they are in, and if free-market ideology has made you too blind to see that the government is literally their only chance to survive, well, sorry.
PJ 6:06PM (5/30/2009)
GM's problem, ever since the 1980s, is that it's been far too large, sprawling, and uncoordinated an organization for the shrinking market share it commands. There was only one way they were ever going to survive: by reeling it all in and trimming their manufacturing, product portfolio, and dealer network down to a size commensurate with their sales.
The Auto Task Force catches sh*t for taking the actions necessary to get this accomplished, which necessarily means closing operations and putting people out of work. But GM (or a new owner, if they'd filed C11 on their own) would've had to do it sometime; we all know it's the only way they were ever going to survive.
harlanx6 7:05PM (5/30/2009)
The brutal fact is in this global economy GM and all auto manufacturers have to compete. They are competing with the Asians. The Germans and French are doing it with leading technology. How are the US auto makers competing? The Asians are formidable competitors and the unions are just getting squeezed out. There is no room in global competition for a UAW type union driving production costs up. The results are apparent, GM and Chrysler in chapter 11. Labor blames it on management. Management blames it on labor. The facts are that this business model can't successfully compete in the global market unless it has leading technology, and we no longer do. I catch hate mail from union supporters, but they are a dying breed. For business it is matter of survival. The unions are through. They no longer have any leverage over the businesses they are killing.
harlanx6 7:21PM (5/30/2009)
Ken Stamper, I kind of agree with you.
harlanx6 7:27PM (5/30/2009)
PJ; That makes sense to me. You made good points and refrained from childish personal attacks like the peanut gallery did.
elprogramer 1:25AM (5/31/2009)
Get off Autoblog you fraud.
Nobody, but nobody can tell General Motors to operate inefficiently; not the government or the UAW. They have a legal responsibility to the shareholders, which isn't the United States (yet) and even when it is, they have to operate on behalf of ALL and work towards profitability.
People like to crow about how evil unions are, but as someone very close to the situation, I can assure you that any "plants staying open" were only kept open by significant concessions designed to improve cost-savings and efficiency.
General Motors and the United Auto Workers are squeezing blood from a rock, because their competitors don't have any long-term commitments to their workforce in the United States, and their home governments subsidize their pension/healthcare obligations in their core regions.
In any case, the Obama administration has been as pro-General Motors as it possibly can (save the unreasonable demands from the California and New England delegates). No cars have been mandated, no cars will be mandated. It irks me to no end when people who are unfamiliar with the automotive industry come in here and tell me otherwise, when I've seen nothing of the sort.
harlanx6 3:31AM (6/01/2009)
Epilogramer:
I did not say unions were evil, but they have outlived their usefulness and are being squeezed out by global competition. What I said was the reorganization of GM under these circumstance would be very interesting, and I think that is a true statement. GM is the home team and I wish them all the luck, but business as they have conducted it in the past is a plan for failure. Once the most powerful entity on earth, they have squandered their inheritance, and now must file chapter 11. In fact I will say either the union goes, or they both go.The UAW-GM model is a failure, and will continue to fail. It's not that we don't like unions, but they are simply detrimental in the global competition for auto sales. The US no longer has an edge that will allow it to support the GM-UAW model which has been consistently getting their ass kicked by the Asians for decades.
By the way, do you know what business unions are in?They are in the dues business.
polo 2:07PM (5/31/2009)
harlenx6, how much do you drink to fry THAT MANY brain cells??? Any company that sees sales drop 40% a month for a year straight (concentrated primarily on their profit-cows: SUVs) is going to end up in bankruptcy. The reason GM is where its at now is because of drunken fools like you. Not even slave labor would've saved GM from its horrific management decisions, where they focused more and more on short-term profits with large inefficient models, even as they watched their foreign competition concentrate & invest heavily on smaller, more efficient vehicles. In 2006 non-union TOYOTA workers were making more than the UAW, so what does that say about your petty argument? Now that the Obama admin is mandating a move toward efficient models, and backing that up with CAFE standards, you'll see GM come out much more viable and competitive. A take-over like this is really the only thing that could have saved GM in the end...there are probably still to many harlen6x's on the company's board to make the kind of drastic reforms necessary to make them viable over the next decade.
harlanx6 2:28PM (5/31/2009)
Polo:
Resorting to personal attack is childish. Your argument lacks substance and your logic is flawed.
The facts are GM is bleeding billions, can't make a profit, and this is proof their business model is a failure. These facts cannot be argued. At this point laying blame is futile. You can't change the past that has seen the most lucrative and powerful entity on earth squander their inheritance to the point of bankruptcy. It will be interesting to see if they can make reorganization work. I hope they do, but they are carrying a lot of inertia in the wrong direction. If they pull it off I'll be the first to give them credit, but it is going to be a formidable task. Their problem is competition from the Asians who have consistently gained market share while GM has consistently lost market share. In other words GM-UAW has consistently gotten their ass kicked for decades, and I don't think that can be argued.
jrhmobile 2:34PM (5/30/2009)
Like burying yourself under crap messages will hide your crap spamming.
Moderator, please pull this clown's messages and username.
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huisj203 2:59PM (5/30/2009)
That plant in the picture is the Lansing Delta Township plant where they build Acadias, Enclaves, and Outlooks. That plant was just built a few years ago before those vehicles went on sale. No way that plant will be shut down. It's practically GM's most state-of-the-art facility.
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Phil 3:09PM (5/30/2009)
Isn't it time quality small cars were built in America, Honda, Toyota and Nissan have been doing it for years, wake up Ford, GM and Chrysler, and I mean built in America, Not Canada or Mexico.
AMERICA.
Id like to see all Chrysler and GM dealers stay open, these closeures are disgusting.
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jpm100 3:17PM (5/30/2009)
your other drivel aside, we sell in Canada and Mexico to the benefit of the US.