A GM (GM) spokesperson said that's when the plant will churn out its last Chevy Cruze sedan. At that point, the factory will be unallocated, which means no vehicles will be assigned to that facility.
GM planned to idle the 6.2 million-square-foot plant on Friday, but the spokesperson said production was slightly ahead of schedule.
The automaker announced a major restructuring in November, including the closure of four US plants and another in Canada. It said it would cut 8,000 US salaried and contract jobs, representing a 15% reduction in its workforce.
The Lordstown plant is the first of the four US plants GM is closing. It had 1,435 hourly workers last year at the time of the plant closing announcement.
GM said that 417 of those workers have already accepted transfers to other plants, and another 80 have requested transfers and are waiting to see the jobs available to them. Workers who move will get up to $30,000 in transfer assistance from the company.
A plant in Baltimore is set to close next month. Another in Warren, Michigan, is due to shut in August. Those two transmission plants have about 500 employees between them, and 50 workers have accepted transfers. The Hamtramck plant, the last factory GM operates in Detroit, was originally due to close later this year but will now stay open until January 2020. It has 1,350 hourly workers, about 600 of whom have accepted transfers.
In total, more than 1,000 of the 3,300 US hourly workers whose plants are being closed have accepted transfers to other plants.
The decision to close the four US plants has led to blowback across the political spectrum. But General Motors says it's necessary so the company can invest more money in the cars of the future.
Last week, the United Auto Workers union sued General Motors over its plans to shutter three of the plants, including Lordstown. The union claims that the decision violates the union's labor contract.
It's asking the court to order GM to reverse the closures. It's also seeking damages for affected employees, including back wages and benefits.
GM said in a statement last week that the company has not violated the provisions of its labor contract with the union.
— CNN Business' Lydia DePillis and Chris Isidore contributed to this report.
No comments:
Post a Comment