GM Weighs Closing Three Plants (Plants outside US?)

WSJ ^

[indianrightwinger]

GM Weighs Closing Three Plants Under Plan to Reduce Capacity By LEE HAWKINS JR. Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL November 21, 2005; Page A3

General Motors Corp. could close at least three North American assembly plants and additional support facilities such as metal-stamping plants when it announces a plan to cut excess capacity in its home market, people who have studied the company's operations say.

GM Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner has promised to unveil a plan before year's end to bring GM's capacity in line with North American sales by 2008, and an announcement could come as early as today. Detroit-based GM and United Auto Workers officials have been negotiating the specifics of the plans and how they will affect thousands of workers. [Market Doubts]

GM's plant-shutdown announcement, when it comes, will be another blow to the UAW, which now faces the loss of tens of thousands of jobs at GM, Ford Motor Co. and the two U.S. auto giants' respective former parts units, Delphi Corp. and Visteon Corp.

While the details of GM's plans remain unclear, GM officials have said that their long-term strategy is to shift more production to lower-cost locations outside North America and to make plants that remain in the U.S. more efficient and flexible, able to build more than one model.

Earlier this year, GM said it might soon discontinue at least one shift at plants in Spring Hill, Tenn., which make the Saturn Ion and the Saturn Vue, and in Oklahoma City, which produces the Chevrolet Trailblazer, Buick Rainier and the GMC Envoy. The company is considering moving the Saturn Ion production from Spring Hill to a GM plant in Lordstown, Ohio, but union leaders in Spring Hill believe the work will stay in Spring Hill.

[indianrightwinger]

GM officials have said that their long-term strategy is to shift more production to lower-cost locations outside North America

How could it be that Toyota, Honda and Nissan are moving plants into US and being successful? Puzzling, huh? Doe unionized workforce ring the bell?

[dr_who_2]

I wonder if Michael Moore is or ever was a GM stock holder.

[snoringbear]

Well, it's here's my two bits; the reason is that the Japanese auto manufacturers will be launching what's known in the trade as a "greenfield startup". Meaning that these plants will be state of the art and the hourly personnel will all be young, healthy, intelligent and motivated. Meanwhile, GM and Ford will continue to be stuck with their $2,000 per car of retiree/retiree dependent pensions and health care baggage. Also, less than state of the art assembly plants, adversarial union bosses, unmotivated hourly employees, and let's not forget a product mix that is not aligned with current demand. Well, guess time will tell how all this shakes out...

[ex-Texan]

To quote some other Freepers, "The U.S. economy is doing great." Oops! Ford is laying off 4,000 workers in North America and Chrysler is stumbling toward layoffs as well. GM is supposed to be nearly bankrupt. But the U.S. economy is doing great. Time for another 'employee discounts for everybody sale?' Better go out and refinance you home to buy a new SUV. Wake up, people. Smell the coffee.

[flashbunny]

you seem to be mistaking the US economy vs several poorly run auto makers. Auto makers that have been poorly run for decades and are now starting to feel the pain.

There are foreign run auto makers who MAKE and SELL cars in the us and they're doing just fine - in fact, most of them are expanding.

[monkapotamus]

GM, terminate the following divisions: Pontiac, Buick, Saturn, and GMC. Have Chevrolet focus on classes of cars and trucks formerly offered by those divisions and keep Cadillac for luxury vehicles.

[kAcknor]

How could it be that Toyota, Honda and Nissan are moving plants into US and being successful?

Can you say U.A.W.?

I knew you could...

[VeniVidiVici]

The economy is doing just fine. Just more evidence of yet another company going through the death throes of unionization.

[mikeybaby]

GM and other unionised manufacturers have agreed to pension and retiree benefits that are unreasonable in part because they are DEFERED costs, not impacting today's income statement. As another example, many Gov. employees in CA can retire at 50 at 100% of their salary. Arnold tried to reduce the political influence of unions in the last special election, only to fail.
This must become a priority for Conservatives across the USA.
The Union guys are killing us.
My experience at Firestone is an example, in that the union has a health plan with no monthly premiums, no co-pay for office visits, no cap on expenditures for yearly care and no prescription drug co-pays.
If these guys had a fart that smells funny, or a sneeze they'd run to the emergency room at a huge cost to the Comapny.
This is insanity, pure and simple.
As an aside, I know GM union employees who make more "take home" money during layoffs than when they are working.
Just nuts.

[G-Man 1]

Look at the airlines. They are trend setters for workers. Eastern Airlines, Pan American World Airways, Braniff Airlines to name a few. Jet Blue, Value Jet, Spirit Airlines
Packard, Studebaker, Hudson and Honda, Toyoda, Nissan do you see a trend here?Long live the unions. Read George Orwells Animal Farm.

[mewzilla]

From this link:

In 2004, 12.5 percent of wage and salary workers were union members, down from 12.9 percent in 2003, the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The union membership rate has steadily declined from a high of 20.1 percent in 1983, the first year for which comparable union data are available. Some highlights from the 2004 data are:

--About 36 percent of government workers were union members in 2004,

compared with about 8 percent of workers in private-sector industries.

We'll survive if GM goes bust.

[ex-Texan]

Guess Americans can gamble on a career in real estate? like Californians? Thousands and thousands of people who have lost their jobs, or quit, are doing just that in California. NOT! When the real estate bubble bursts, who is going to hire these would-be-salesmen? Stupid is as stupid does. America used to be the manufacturing capitol of the world. Now we export jobs overseas. Even high tech jobs are immigrating or foreign workers from China, India and Russia work cheaper here. Thank Congress. They gave us NAFTA, CAFTA and our open border policy with Mexico. Congress is to blame, not Bush. Maybe Congress can extend unemployment benefits to a year when the recession hits?

[flashbunny]

and changing the subject from auto makers to the real estate market proves your original point in what way???

[ex-Texan]

If you must ask that question, it appears you simply do not understand.

The U.S. economy is in crisis whether you admit the truth or refuse to do so. Congress has sold out America: NAFTA, CAFTA, illegal immigrants overwhelm health care providers, open borders cost jobs for Americans, corporations are being sold to foreign nations, U.S. firms are going bust (like GM, Ford, Chryser), pension plans disbanded by corporate bankruptcies, U.S. companies play BIG BONUS BINGO, companies lay off workers and the list goes on and on. Watch the stock market very carefully. Recession is just around the corner.

[flashbunny]

"If you must ask that question, it appears you simply do not understand."

You know, you would have a lot better time convincing people if you could stick to one topic and prove it to its proper conclusion, and only then move on to another point, so you can build on your success of proving the first point.

Instead, you've resorted to a scatter-shot approach - never backing up what you've wrote, constantly shifting from one quick outburst to another, hoping that one of them connects, but failing to do so every time.

It makes you look like you're either desperate, uninformed, or some kind of crackpot that just throws out disparate items hoping that someone will somehow make the connection between them all and see that you are right.