GM still trucking—for now
JANESVILLE — Three days after announcing the definitive closure of an Ohio sport utility vehicle plant, General Motors said today its Janesville plant will build trucks through most of November.
In a mid-morning memo to Janesville employees, GM said it is reinstating production of full-size SUVs for the week of Nov. 3.
The plant’s 1,150 hourly and 130 salaried employees also will be on the job for the weeks of Nov. 10 and 17.
In the weeks leading up to today’s scheduling announcement, speculation had been that the Janesville plant was not likely to build trucks in November and December. Earlier this year, GM said that slow sales of the big trucks would mean 10 weeks of non-production at the Janesville plant.
Between the weeks of Aug. 18 and Nov. 3, five of those down weeks had been scheduled. With five weeks yet to be scheduled, conventional wisdom indicated that SUV workers would not be on the job in November or December.
Local workers still will be off the weeks of Nov. 24 and Dec. 22 for traditional holiday breaks, and a plant spokeswoman said the December production schedule is still pending.
As previously scheduled, workers on the SUV line in Janesville are working for the entire month of October.
Today’s announcement at the Janesville plant comes on the heels of GM’s decision to close its Moraine, Ohio, plant on Dec. 23. That plant’s 1,100 workers, who build the GMC Envoy, Chevrolet Trailblazer and Saab 9-7X, learned of the decision Friday.
GM announced in June that it planned to close its plants in Moraine, Janesville and two other communities by 2010 at the latest. The four closures combined will result in the loss of about 8,350 jobs.
The automaker followed that up with the announcement that the closures could come sooner rather than later as it shifts to smaller vehicles. A slumping U.S. auto market and a shift from pickups and SUVs to smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles led to the shutdown plans.
Before it closes its plant in Janesville, GM must give the state a 60-day notice of its intentions.
In September, a Wisconsin delegation flew to Detroit to propose a plan for continued employment at the Janesville plant.
GM officials reportedly took the delegation’s proposals seriously and are expected to schedule another meeting in the coming weeks.
Oct 7, 2008 at 5:37 p.m.
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Unleaded regular under 3 bucks a gallon just might buy some time as the profits are still large on suburbans. even discounted. keep your fingers crossed and do not vote in the looney democrats who hate GM and love high energy prices. ya never know
Oct 6, 2008 at 4:24 p.m.
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I would agree with that. Bumbling Corporate Management hasn't helped. Since Rick Wagoner joined GM, the share price has dropped 75%. At any other company, he would be fired. At least Bill Ford Jr. had the foresight to see he didn't know what he was doing, and relinquished his position to an outsider.
Oct 6, 2008 at 4:17 p.m.
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Zoom, most definately not. I would not ban free trade. American companies (ie. Coke) have been global since the late 1880's.
My point is most Union people like to blame the following:
Americans - for not buying American
Politicians - for allowing free trade
Companies - for shipping work overseas
However until recently, they never wanted to be part of the solution, just part of the problem with their unnescessary demands. Most of the workers were hard working, while their Union demanded benefits not realistic, after listening to the vocal minority. Somehow this must be George Bush's fault that Janesville is closing.
Oct 6, 2008 at 3:26 p.m.
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windsor...That's a hard question to answer..The Janesville plant is building trucks for the overseas market.85% of the trucks are sent to that market.So how many that are built here are part of the hands on inventory is anyones guess.
Oct 6, 2008 at 3:14 p.m.
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Even if the Japanese transplants hadn't invested here, the Big 2.8 would still have made ginormous SUV's that nobody can afford anymore, while largely ignoring small cars. What's your solution, banning free trade altogether?
Since 2006 alone, JAMA members will have invested almost $2billion in automotive and auto parts manufacturing plants, bringing their members’ investment in the U.S. to $30.09 billion. Today about 67 percent of Japanese brand vehicles sold in America are produced in North America, mostly in the United States and largely with U.S. produced parts.
Oct 6, 2008 at 2:42 p.m.
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For you hard core democrats out there embedded in the auto industry, how is the Carter administrations decision to create the Askew/Yasukawa agreement working out?
Oct 6, 2008 at 2:02 p.m.
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Lots! How many do you want to buy?
Oct 6, 2008 at 10:27 a.m.
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Can anyone give information on how many days of inventory are currently on hand for Janesville's products?
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