Slow sales, parts shortage affect GM plant in Texas
Podcast Episode
Kyle Geissler talks with Janesville Gazette business editor Jim Leute about temporary layoffs at another GM SUV plant.
JANESVILLE — Weak demand for full-size sport utility vehicles and a shortage of critical parts have forced General Motors to lay off second-shift workers at an assembly plant in Arlington, Texas.
Workers at the GM assembly plant in Janesville, who also build the big SUVs, learned Monday that the automaker would cut the local plant’s second shift in July. The result will be the loss of at least 750 jobs.
While the second-shift cut in Janesville is permanent, the Arlington cut will be for next week only.
All Arlington workers are in the third and final week of a three-week layoff tied to the United Auto Workers strike against American Axle, which supplies GM with axles and other parts for SUVs and pickup trucks. First-shift workers in Arlington will resume production next week while second-shifters will continue on lay off.
The Arlington plant, which has about 2,400 hourly workers, builds Chevrolet Suburbans and Tahoes and GMC Yukon XLs and Yukons. About 2,600 hourly employees also make those four vehicles in Janesville.
But Arlington workers also build Cadillac Escalades, Escalade ESVs and the two-mode hybrid versions of Tahoes and Yukons.
A GM spokesman said Tuesday that Arlington’s wider product mix was the reason it avoided the permanent second-shift cut that landed on the Janesville plant.
The Arlington plant has ranked consistently higher than Janesville in the annual Harbour Report on plant productivity.
Enrique “JR” Flores Jr., president of UAW Local 276 that represents hourly workers at the Arlington plant, told the Dallas Morning News: “We're happy we have what we’ve got.
“We're also saddened about what happened at Janesville. But we understand what is happening out there.”
May 1, 2008 at 9:06 a.m.
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Perhaps GM/AAM/UAW are in cohoots in all this.
AAM workers stay out until they are bled financially dry and have to take any offer.
GM gets to draw down the excess trucks/suv/vans that are just sitting on the lot!
THEN WRITE IT OFF ALL STRIKE RELATED LOSSES OFF THEIR TAXES AT THE END OF THE YEAR!!!
If GM simply laid people off to reduce inventory they couldn't write it off the tax bill due...The strike allows that to happen...This is the perfect storm FOR GM!
The UAW bosses?...Who knows what "benefit" is being given to them to take the AAM people out.
The UAW has sold us all out in the national contract and now seeks to ruin long time workers to get them to buy out!
What would be their motive?...At Delphi, we couldn't figure out why the UAW wanted me to buyout or retire, then replace me with a worker making half the money and paying half the union dues.
TURNS OUT THAT THE DELPHI CONTRACT CONTAINS A CLAUSE THAT ANY BUSINESS SELLING TO DELPHI MUST ORGANIZE UNDER THE UAW AND PAY UNION DUES...THIS MORE THAN DOUBLES UAW MEMBERSHIP AND INCREASES DUES COMING IN, EVEN THOUGH AUTO WORKERS ARE BEING HIRED IN AT HALF THE WAGE!
NO DOUBT THE UAW/GM/FORD/CHRYSLER AND THE POSSIBLE "NEW" AAM AGREEMENTS CONTAIN THE SAME VERBAGE!!!
I have asked several UAW workers to ask their union reps if this is true...The UAW REFUSES to answer the question regarding whether or not the new contracts require non union parts/material plants to organize under the UAW whether their workers want it or not.
The bottom line is that GM workers were sold out by the UAW and now it's happening again...All so the UAW would have more clout in the Democratic Party.
I hope all of you Union Brothers and Sisters who have always blindly voted Democrat because the Union told you "Democrats are for the workin man," are happy about being sold out by the UAW to gain power in the Democratic Party.
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