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GM adding third production shifts at three U.S. plants
With all of the factories that General Motors is closing down and the brands being eliminated, there has been plenty of bad news for GM's blue collar staff over the past year. This week, there was finally a bit of good news as three factories got word that they would add third shifts in the coming months. The Fairfax, KS, Lansing-Delta Twp, MI and Ft Wayne, IN factories will all add more workers and production.
Fairfax is losing production of the Saturn Aura, but all production of the Malibu will be consolidated there along with the Buick LaCrosse. The Orion, MI plant that has been building Malibus along with the Pontiac G6 will be retooled next year to build the next-generation Aveo. With fullsize heavy duty pickup production stopping in Pontiac, that production will be shifted to Ft Wayne. The Lansing factory will be adding Chevy Traverse production that is ending at the Spring Hill, TN factory. A total of 2,400 jobs will be added at the three factories.
[Source: General Motors]
PRESS RELEASE
GM Adds a Third Shift at Three Assembly Plants in U.S.
* Additional shifts in Kansas, Indiana and Michigan restore jobs for 2,400 employees
* Company's actions will result in increased manufacturing plant utilization in the U.S.
DETROIT - General Motors Company will add a third shift at its Fairfax, Kans.; Ft. Wayne, Ind.; and Lansing Delta Township, Mich. plants - restoring 2,400 jobs and enabling GM to increase its manufacturing plant utilization in the U.S.
Today's actions, noted below, are the result of consolidating product built at manufacturing facilities that are, as previously announced, retooling for a new product, closing or being placed on standby capacity:
* Fairfax, which builds the recently launched all-new Buick LaCrosse the popular Chevrolet Malibu and Saturn Aura, will become the exclusive builder of the Malibu when the Orion, Mich. assembly plant ends production in November. In 2010, the Orion plant will begin retooling and make history when it becomes the first U.S. plant to produce small cars to be sold in the U.S. market in 2011. The new shift at the Fairfax plant is scheduled to begin in January, 2010.
* Ft. Wayne will add production of heavy duty pickups (Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra) from the Pontiac, Mich. plant that will close the end of this month. The third shift is scheduled to begin in April, 2010.
* Lansing Delta Township, Mich. will add the Chevy Traverse which is currently built at the Spring Hill Assembly plant in Tennessee, which will cease production in November but remain on standby capacity. The new shift at the Lansing plant is scheduled to begin in April 2010.
These changes are in addition to GM's previous announcement that a second shift will be added at the Lordstown Complex (Ohio) in October where the popular Chevy Cobalt is built and all-new Chevy Cruze will be launched in the spring of 2010.
"Today's actions enable GM to add production shifts and maximize the utilization of several of our plants," said Tim Lee, Group Vice President Manufacturing and Labor Relations. "In turn, we are better positioned to deliver the vehicles our customers' desire and put thousands of employees back to work that would have otherwise been laid off."
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Luis 10:01AM (9/23/2009)
But, but, but...Cash for Clunkers was supposed to cause only a temporary increase in demand and then a sudden crash when it ended! Oh no, something the Democrats did might have actually worked!
I need to go suck on Rush's tit some more so I can be fed more useless garbage.
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l.i.dave 10:13AM (9/23/2009)
Are you really that stupid?
Most people agree that all CFC did was pull demand forward and now all the car companies are forced to fill the govt void with their own heavy rebates.
Nothing the democrats are doing is working bc all they are doing is copying the Bush Bail Out playbook. Well that, and wasting 6 months on a health care bill that is destined to fail thus wasting important time an energy that could have been focused on an economy that is reaching the zenith of a dead cat bounce
Six months from now things are going to be awful and you hero Obama will be a guaranteed one term loser.
mortonb11 10:19AM (9/23/2009)
@ Dave
yes, and the republicans did sooo much better for your economy...haha
are YOU really that stupid???
your lucky to have Obama, and if you do vote him out you deserve what you get (although i doubt it will happen)
Tagg 10:29AM (9/23/2009)
What are you talking about? This article has nothing to do with cash for clunkers, democrats or Rush.
Read the article and it clearly states the are shifting production. They are shifting production from plants that are closing like the Pontiac Mich. HD truck plant to Fort Wayne. Shifting Traverse production from Spring Hill to Lansing since the Spring Hill plant is being axed. Then they are consolidating Malibu from two factories to one.
So while they may be adding 2,000+ jobs to these factories they are just offestting the ones lost at the others. As for the need to produce product. Well, what do you expect to happen when many plants have been laid off for over 6 months? C4C just sped up what was already scheduled to happen.
This is all due to GM's restructuring not how 'great' the government program was.
Your politcal rants are pointless especially when the article has nothing to with politics.
Den in IN 10:38AM (9/23/2009)
You lunkheads didn't read the post. This is the result of factory consolidations. Jobs are going away over there and showing up over here. Its the fruit of GM taking steps to correctly balance capacity and demand. The only politcal input to this was the requirement on GM management to get real and size themselves according to reality rather than ego.
Nathan 10:34AM (9/23/2009)
The economy did pretty well under Bush, actually. There was a strong recession when he took office due to the collapse of the dot coms, and he managed it far better than any democrat would have. You seem to think Obama is doing a good job, but he's spent more in 6 months than bush did in 8 years and shows no sign of stopping until the deficit has increased 10 fold. If you're unwilling to place at least some of the blame of the current recession on a democrat-controlled congress, Frank's babies Fannie and Freddie, or ridiculous lending practices forced on banks by Clinton and prior to that the Community Reinvestment Act, then i'm not sure what to tell you. Demand for cars will dry up now and in the long run the issue of dealers with unsellable inventory will return worse than before CFC.
Luis 11:14AM (9/23/2009)
"The economy did pretty well under Bush, actually."
Typical Republican living in an alternate reality with Faux-news-generated Facts.
The recession Bush inherited was utterly incomparable to the most recent one. It was barely a blip on the radar. The "economic growth" of the past 9 years was solely based on fake-baking by the finance sector and the housing bubble, whereby wages for regular middle income Americans remained flat, the poor got poorer and the rich got VASTLY richer. It all came crashing down last year as the market failed and huge government bailouts were required to save the global economy. Deregulation of the financial markets is the direct result of Reganomics and the 1980s conservative movement, and Democrats helped this along in fear during the early 90s. Republicans controlled Congress from 94-on so to blame this on Frank is utterly ridiculous. Clinton's Presidency was hobbled by his inability to push back against the stupid scandals that were generated by the Rightwing - Whitewater, et. al. His own dingaling didn't help, but these personal foibles were nothing compared to the junk that Republicans were allowed to get away with in selling-out to the highest-bidding lobbyist.
Now Rethugs are at it again, trying to destroy Obama's Presidency so they can serve their master-corporate-financial-insurance-industry masters. You're all suckers if you fall for it again. They've even infiltrated the Democratic party with fakers Baucus and his ilk. Our country is doomed if we allow these corporate-lobbyist-paid-politicians to govern in their best interest rather than ours.
BigMcLargeHuge 1:39PM (9/23/2009)
Luis,
You got owned by Tagg for being off-topic.
He's the only one with a point. STFU.
Tagg 1:00PM (9/23/2009)
"Typical Republican living in an alternate reality with Faux-news-generated Facts."
You talking about facts is a joke. Read the comment you posted about this subject. It is completely baseless and devoid of ANY facts. You just cooked up some half-baked idea to give credit to C4C and the democrats for something they had nothing to do with.
Next thing you'll say is the grass is green because Obama and C4C.
Save your politics for the MSNBC boards because you're as bad as the Rush nuts from the right.
JimmyD 1:27PM (9/23/2009)
It would be nice if people could keep politics out of Autoblog. I'm inundated with it everywhere else, Autoblog should be a nice escape where people talk about cars.
mortonb11 10:16AM (9/23/2009)
Lets all try to guess Brians first anti GM comments for this one...
"They can ad a third shift now, but it wont stop the Cimarron from being a horrible car"
"great there spending tax payer money to create jobs, rather than pay us back"
"I once owned a car 10 years ago built during a third shift and it had a funny smell to it, down with GM"
I dont know, maybe you can do better, but i thought these were fairly mindless comments, but im guessing Brian will still surprise us all.
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Dave 10:29AM (9/23/2009)
"I once owned a car 10 years ago built during a third shift and it had a funny smell to it, down with GM"
I'd actually be curious to see a quality study comparing the three shifts
akboss302 10:31AM (9/23/2009)
dude, it's a public blog, who cares what people post...maybe we can open a separate forum so you guys can have a blog-off and anticipate each others comments, that would be fun.
Avinash machado 10:53AM (9/23/2009)
The only other objective person here is Matt.
Ha ha Looks like the Detroit fanboys are scared that I tell the truth. No wonder they down vote me.
Brex 11:30AM (9/23/2009)
@ akboss
Dude, you're right, it is a public blog so what do you care what people post? I guess that works as long as people post what you want to read.
@ morton
That was pretty funny.
From My Cube 10:21AM (9/23/2009)
Are cars really selling that well? Im afraid in 3 months we will see "GM cutting third shift from X plants"
I hope they are selling but at the same time, I'd rather have my inventory be slightly low rather than fill it back up to the brim with no gurantee of demand...then again I dont have the numbers in front of me
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Danimal 10:31AM (9/23/2009)
Well most manufacturers don't run three shifts constantly, so yes I sure they will eventually drop the third shift.
Danimal 10:21AM (9/23/2009)
I'm a fan of GM and most of there current products, and even I didn't think they would be making such mass staff additions so soon after coming out of bankruptcy.
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FThorn 11:20AM (9/23/2009)
I think that goes to show you what eliminating the old baggage can do for GM.
That's the one benefit of the government stepping in.
NB 12:20PM (9/23/2009)
@Luis
Amen speak the truth!!!
4 years of scandal followed by 8 years of corruption and scandal bush years where great!!!! , followed by what looked to be the fleecing of America before leaving office just great
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