aw s***...

[CaptianSam]

GM has REALLY SCREWED up .... so the oshawa truck line (plant)just won some awards for best quality trucks in north america...

AND THEY SHUT DOWN THE ENTIRE TRUCK LINE...
on top of which ford has also made many many cuts... and shut down plants
and gm has shut down 4 truck plants in the past week...

thats alot of jobs....

[The_Blur]

Quality doesn't matter if they just sit in lots. Trucks need to sell to make GM money. I'm glad GM had the courage to remove a plant that produces a product in low demand. It will save GM lots of money in the long run.

[stovt001]

Oshawa's car plant is also award winning. Canadians rock. I hope many of the Oshawa truck workers can transfer over and work at the car plant and work their magic on the Camaro.

[Mr. Wyndham]

Originally Posted by The_Blur

Quality doesn't matter if they just sit in lots. Trucks need to sell to make GM money. I'm glad GM had the courage to remove a plant that produces a product in low demand. It will save GM lots of money in the long run.

the ONLY issue with this (aside from people losing their jobs) is that GM has already agreed with the UAW to keep the plant open through 2011 2 weeks ago...now they're up in arms because of this 'betrayal' (not my words)...

[The_Blur]

Originally Posted by stovt001

Oshawa's car plant is also award winning. Canadians rock. I hope many of the Oshawa truck workers can transfer over and work at the car plant and work their magic on the Camaro.

Actually, 19k workers just took a buyout option. GM says that some workers will be able to take jobs left behind by those workers.

Originally Posted by Dragoneye

the ONLY issue with this (aside from people losing their jobs) is that GM has already agreed with the UAW to keep the plant open through 2011 2 weeks ago...now they're up in arms because of this 'betrayal' (not my words)...

I saw that word in a few articles. If this particular union wasn't so one-sided and was willing to see the business end of things, I would be less critical. This is the third issue I've had with the UAW in as many months. From what I've seen, the UAW would eagerly run GM out of business if it got them a few bigger paychecks then complain that GM declared bankruptcy. They're acting like a bunch of emo kids who cut themselves no matter how good life is. It's not as though Nissan or Mitsubishi is going to offer them what GM has given them. They're lucky GM is willing to put up with their complaints anymore instead of just building all their components in a third world country.

[stovt001]

The Blur, I agree. No one wants pay or benefit cuts, but since what they're getting is so much higher than what any non-union shop offers, if the big three go down (which they would if the Union didn't agree to concessions) then they'd get a bigger cut having to go to the other auto-makers.

[Mr. Wyndham]

Actually, this would be the CAW, who is seeing job cuts throughout Canada, and are worried about a full-withdrawl from auto manufacturing in Canada.

I'm seeing both sides: On one hand, I don't understand why GM broke the contract. It's very hard for me to see a reason. Only 2 weeks ago, they promised the union that the plant would stay open. Am I expected to believe that they didn't know two weeks ago that truck sales were down?

On the other hand, that fact is truck and SUV sales are down almost 50%!!! There's nothing the UAW could present that would give a good reason for keeping the Oshawa plant open, except by suggesting a different US plant should be shut down in it's place...which would turn this into the CAW v. the UAW; with GM stuck in the middle. Not something that would go over well.

But it's not right to keep blaming these unions for everything. If you want to blame someone, blame the Imports for making the playing field so lop-sided. We were doing fine before they came into the game........

[MerF]

Wouldn't it be UCW vs UAW?

[Mr. Wyndham]

Originally Posted by MerF

Wouldn't it be UCW vs UAW?

That (^) would be hysterical.

[DGthe3]

There is talk by the federal government to step in and help out. there is a $250 M fund sitting around to help out the auto industry. Some of it needs to be given on the condition that it is spend to change over the plant to make something else.

And in the contract it did say that GM has the right to walk out if market conditions change. I'd say that they haven't changed in the 2 weeks since the contract was signed.

[Muscle Master]

General Motors union workers affected by the automaker's decision to close four truck and SUV plants continue to voice their displeasure as CAW members blocked the entrance to GM of Canada's headquarters in Oshawa, Ontario. General Motors announced Tuesday at its annual meeting that it would be shuttering the doors of four of its truck and SUV plants due to sagging demand — including its Oshawa truck plant.

In addition to the loss of about 2,600 jobs, the CAW is upset because it feels GM broke a recently inked agreement to keep the Oshawa plant open. "We are going to stay here until General Motors reverses the decision they made yesterday, or at the very least commits to a product for the Oshawa truck plant, or sits down face-to-face with this union to try to explain why they have broken our brand new agreement," Chris Buckley, of the Canadian Auto Workers union, told Automotive News.

In the CAW contract inked last month, GM pledged to boost Canadian production and even promised production of the Chevrolet Silverado Hybrid and GMC Sierra Hybrid to the Oshawa plant. Those hybrid trucks will now be made in the U.S. or Mexico.

However, even with the national contract, the CAW doesn't really have a leg to stand on. Last month, sales of the Chevy Silverado plummeted 44 percent and the GMC Sierra saw a sales decline of 33.9 percent. It seems the CAW might have a pretty tough time convincing GM to produce two vehicles that nobody wants to buy anymore.

General Motors announced yesterday at its annual meeting that it will be shuttering the doors of its Moraine, Ohio plant, but union workers at that plant don't plan to just go away quietly. Although plant workers say the news wasn't shocking, they still plan on fighting the closure.

"We anticipate having additional meetings, sitting down and talking about contractual issues, meeting with the international union to see where we go from here and what can be done," Gaylen Turner, president of IUE-CWA Local 798, told Automotive News. Local 798 represents about 2,300 workers at the Moraine plant — which produces the Chevrolet Trailblazer, GMC Envoy and Saab 9-7X.

However, there is little hope GM will keep the Moraine facility open as the bottom has dropped out on the truck and SUV markets. Along with the closure of the Moraine plant, GM also announced the closure of three other truck and SUV plants.

As of Monday, over 300 workers at the Moraine plant have already taken "special attrition packages."

The Moraine plant lacked any future product plans beyond 2010, and it is likely GM will permanently close its doors in 2009 or 2010.

things are looking bad again

[Mr. Wyndham]

nobody at these plants are going to LIKE the move...this whole situation sucks.

[Muscle Master]

I wonder whats going thru the minds of al the other plants personal it might not happen now but they could close plants in the future, sniff.....sniff, I smell a strike

[MerF]

It's the shittiness of a recession (oh wait, the carebears of the country still say we're not recessing...hmm), and I feel for those folks.

Union or not, it sucks when the economy is too stressed to afford luxuries like big trucks and big SUVs.