The largest of the assembly plants slated for shutdown is the 6.2-million acre Lordstown Complex in Warren, Ohio, that produces the Chevrolet Cruze. Both CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern serve this facility, which employs 1,600 autoworkers. GM’s Detroit-Hamtramck plant, which assembles the Chevrolet Volt and Impala along with the Buick LaCrosse and Cadillac CT6, is also on the list. NS serves this 1,500-worker facility.
Canadian National serves the Oshawa assembly plant in Ontario, which produces the Chevrolet Impala and Cadillac XTS along with two pickup truck models, the Chevrolet Light Duty Silverado and GMC Light Duty Sierra. Oshawa employs more than 2,500 people. A CN spokesperson declined to comment further.
GM’s transmission plants in Warren, Mich., and White Marsh, Md., known as the Baltimore Operations, are also on the block. GM confirms to Trains that Baltimore is not served by rail.
In what Reuters has called the biggest North American restructuring for GM since its 2009 bankruptcy, more than 6,700 hourly and salaried workers are directly affected. The United Auto Workers labor union called it a “callous decision” and vowed to challenge the auto company’s action “through every legal, contractual, and collective bargaining avenue.”
Pushback is also coming from politicians on both sides of the border. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted that he had spoken with GM’s CEO, Mary Barra, to express “deep disappointment.” CNBC reports that Barra will meet today with Larry Kudlow, economic adviser to President Donald Trump.
Trump told reporters at the White House that wasn’t happy about the plant closures and that he urged Barra to “put something else in” the Lordstown plant.
With a consumer shift to SUVs and pickup trucks, many of the sedan vehicles produced at these plants have seen their sales slump. Lordstown and Detroit-Hamtramck are operating on just one shift, with only the truck line at Oshawa running two shifts.
General Motors is also looking ahead. In a statement, the automaker said that spending on electric and autonomous vehicles would double in the next two years.
“We recognize the need to stay in front of changing market conditions and customer preferences to position our company for long-term success,” said Barra.
Two additional, unspecified plants outside North America will also cease operations by the end of 2019 and salaried staff will be cut 15 percent as part of the automaker’s restructuring.
I would also wonder what effect the administration’s changes in CAFE(Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards had in this.
trump’s tariffs will destroy America’s economy. GM’s product quality still sucks. Together, they are a very bad combination.
Mister Mitzel:
Thank you. I knew the rough outlines of the story but could not remember the players.
Would this have saved MILW? That is one of the great unknowables and unimportant. but it would have made a solid case for long-distance electrification in North America, and that right there is my point.
Perhaps it is not too late. Mass quantities (thank you, Beldar) of internal combustion engines of any kind are not good for the environment. Going electrical shifts the location of the prime mover but increasingly this prime mover need not necessarily involve combustion. That can only be a good thing.
Oh. And Mister Simms: You do NOT repeat NOT have permission to call me Anna. It’s Doctor Harding to you, young man.
The above comments are general in nature and do not form the basis for an attorney/client relationship. They do not constitute legal advice. I am not your attorney. Find your own damn lawyer.
ANNA HARDING it was GE that offered to finance the complete revamp of the MILW’s Western Extension electrification, including all new catenary, substations and motors (locomotives). GE also would close the “Gap” between Avery, ID and Othello, WA and may have extended the wire east to Miles City, MT. Needless to say, MILW mgt. turned down the offer and was banking on cheap diesel and high (scrap) copper prices. What happened in the market was the inverse… the Arab Oil Embargo hit a the same time as copper prices plummeted. Just another bad decision adding another nail in the Milwaukee’s coffin.
I admit that I’m an admirer of the Milwaukee Road’s electrification program but won’t start the conversation all over again if the railroad should have been saved or not. The story is there for all to read and make their own decisions.
I still queston why Pennsy didn’t complete hanging wire from Harrisburg to Chicago or the New Haven to Boston. Locomotive changes were costly when you consider one electric, or set thereof, depending on the train would have been sufficient for the entire run.
Had more of the nations railroads electrified (several roads conducted extensive studies) no doubt GM would have started to develop electric locomotives of their own to compete with GE and Westinghouse thus giving the ELECTRO true meaning to EMD.
The Century 21 globalized automobile market is swamped with far too many manufacturers making too many different models. It can drive a person nuts trying to decide what fits his or her needs best. A long time native Tampa Florida railfan buddy of mine has always bought Chevys and will never change. The time has arrived to not only slim or shut down plants and reduce the labor force but turn out quality vehicles that are worth the investment for society regardless of the country where they are made.
Item: Imigine purchasing a talking vehicle made in China that gives you the onboard data in Chinese instead of English. Now what the heck did it mean when it told me to not override the ying yang???
GM cars are good, I have driven and own several since I learned to drive and I have been a GM shareholder. First, GM has to make the decisions in a good economy, I question closing the Oshawa, because the Camero is built there and the plant in Lansing is one of new plants GM built during the Great Recession. I lived in Detroit when Poletown was being built GM cut slow selling modest and add trucks and SUV to their products. The plants they are closing are modern auto plants, GM has always had a problem of having two plants and products, however every one in BIg 3 is cutting car models because trucks SUV and hybrids is what the customer wants.
Sorry, it was 4 HQ’s, I forgot to use my toes to count.
As usual, the uninformed have all the answers. GM, FCA and Ford have all cancelled sedans for the same reason, sales. You do not build what can’t be sold. Trucks, SUV’s, Crossovers sell. Chevy has 7 cars that they build, dropping a couple slow sellers from the list makes sense. If you need a ‘full’ size vehicle are you buy 4 door car or a crossover that gets about the same mpg but has twice the room. The smaller the car, the harder it is to build it at a profit. No profit, no company. GM quality is at or above most of the imports, those that complain about it are typically the ones that haven’t owned one in decades. They only buy foreign and always try to justify it with “GM builds junk” – try buying one before you whine about the quality. This is NOT about tariffs or the UAW, it is about building what we will buy, nothing else. Like it or not, we will be stuck with electric cars someday and auto makers need a LONG time to develope unknown technoligies and products. Don’t blame Trump, Obama or the boogie man, it’s just the next tech cycle slapping us in the face. I grew up in Flint, Mi. In 1979/80 GM employed approximately 80,000 people in Genesee County, (yes, 80,000). There were 3 world HQ’s there, Buick, AC Spark Plug, Fischer Body and GM Parts. Today there is only the Parts HQ, no AC Spark Plug plants (just a large 200 acre field), no Fischer Body plants, (just fields), no Buick plants, (just 600 acres of contaminated concrete slabs), none of the original Chevrolet complex, (fields and Kettering Univ.). Now, just two GM Parts plants and the complex where all of your Heavy Duty GM pickups and most of the crew cab pickups come from. Current employment in the area is under 20,000. So, do not preach to me about how terrible all this is, I’ve lived it. Oh yea, we also have lead in the drinking water.
Those who say GM products are crap, I disagree. I have owned a Chevy 1500 for 40 years. The first one I purchased in 1978. Lasted me 20 years, 360,000 miles. My next one was purchased in 1998. That one lasted 18 1/2 years. Didn’t undercoat it every year like the first. I am in hopes that the one I purchased in Feb. 2017 will be my last, as I am knocking on the door of 70 years. If I can keep this one for 20 years, that would put me at 88 (20 years from the date I purchased it). My next vehicle I ride in after that might be a hearse if I last that long.
J Simms,
Troll-like comments are the reason people are getting out of “social media” and web-sites like this one eventually go silent. No-one forces you to read posts from people you “don’t like.”
The CEO of GM is betting the company on electric and autonomous vehicles? Really? Neither technology is truly ready or practical. I feel sorry for the worker-bees that will suffer if/when this doesn’t pan out.
The MILW used hydroelectric for generating their power until commercial became cheaper, what an environmental plus it would be to do that again-no pollution! Very high initial investment, though.
I’m just wondering where all the “new” technology vehicles are going to be manufactured? In the old plants after a retooling process or (in my humble opinion) overseas?
It sounds like Sammy knows the New Castle SD pretty well, and he’s so right.
Removing Lordstown from the picture would mean a huge operational change for the CSX Newcastle Subdivision seeing that basically the Newcastle is split into two different divisions basically. The one from Newcastle to Lordstown, and the other from Lordstown to Willard. Removing the chaos at Lordstown may actually (possibly) speed up service between Willard and Newcastle. Yet I will personally miss all the times the IO dispatcher calls and asks each train how many cars they have for Lordstown. I will also miss the infamous Q299 who everyone has to wait for.
How has GM managed to be so overstaffed ten years after bankruptcy? Bankruptcy was supposed to be a clean state start over.
Anna is right about all cars being the same shape. By now everyone has figured out the most efficient and aerodynamic shape of a car and they’ve all come up with the same answer. Just like airplanes – they’re all the same shape and look, only the size varies along with how many engines under the wing.
I see no evidence that the internal combustion engine is obsolete. Even the Prius, a superbly efficient car, has one.
GM probably should update their offerings(nobody but cops drive Impalas any more, and the Volt will never compete with a Prius) and shed the cars that aren’t selling well. But I have a feeling that the tariffs imposed by Trump have got a lot to do with it as well. UP is feeling the pinch on the steel rail it imports from Japan, etc.
GM is krazey. They say that their sedans aren ‘t selling well. Well, design some with style. Having a rear wheel drive mid/large sedan wouldn’t hurt. In the 1950’s thru early 1970’s, GM lead the way. Now they copy or try to play catch up.
I see Anna is back @ it spewing her legal nonsense crapola. Wish we could read a practical post from he/she/it w/out having to endure that.
Mister Norton:
There is a reason cars all look alike these days, and that is fuel economy. Body shapes are determined in large part by drag coefficients as determined in wind tunnel tests. Since the objective is to optimize fuel economy by reducing drag coefficient, there is only one optimum answer and thus all solutions tend toward this answer.
Gone are the days of the Detroit Chrome Mountain , (rhetorically speaking) known for holding the road – down -, and requiring a six man crew.
If Tesla could ever manage to dedigitate I would be willing to consider purchasing my next vehicle from them. The internal combustion engine has passed from a thing of utility to a thing of threat and, much as I would like to have something along the lines of an Excalibur it would not be socially responsible for me to do so.
This applies to railroads as well. Diesel engines are becoming increasingly untenable. It is unfortunate in many ways that the Milwaukee Road chose to dieselize the Pacific Extension in the early 1970’s. I once saw a story – which I cannot now find to cite – stating that either Westinghouse or General Electric offered to finance a complete electrification of the Pacific Extension, but that Milwaukee management turned them down in favour of diesels. Had they not done so there might have been two outcomes. First, Milwaukee Road might have survived (albeit with trimming); second, they might have served as a template for long-haul electrification. But, that was then and this is now, and we will never know.
The above comments are general in nature and do not form the basis for an attorney/client relationship. They do not constitute legal advice. I am not your attorney. Find your own damn lawyer.
Steel tarriffs, inept president, and a stone deaf population. And on the Christmas Season. Hope all you blue collar guys and gals who voted to MAGA, take a serious step back, and start reading the tea leaves. You have been had. I wonder how long it will take before it gets blamed on poor people, immigrants or President Obama.
Those spewing about politics.. This trimming at GM is long overdue, and has nothing to do with current or former presidents and their policies. General Motors has always been financially irresponsible. Their numerous expensive engine programs. Overstaffed engineering departments. Too many facilities for current production.. And last but not least the UAW which bleeds profits from GM with expensive labor contracts..
So, 6.2 million acres at Lordstown, huh? How about 6.2 million square feet.
GM’s Detroit- Hamtramck Assembly, built around 1980, was massively controversial. The northern half of the property, in Hamtramck, was the site of Chrysler’s ancient and inefficient Hamtramck Assembly, or “Dodge Main”, which had closed. The southern half of the property, in Detroit, meant tearing down a Catholic church and a few decrepit blocks of the Poletown neighborhood. Poletown was already in steep decline and what was left over after the plant was built is today one of Detroit’s worst slums. Despite the fact that that Poletown had zero future as a decent place to live, the city’s Slavic population (Polish, Ukrainian and Serbian) protested long and loud.
Detroit’s Slavic neighborhoods were already on the verge of extinction. The people protesting GM were in a sense protesting the inevitable decline of their ramshackle neighborhood.
The plant was originally meant for the Cadillac division but produced a number of Buick and other GM models before being retooled for the Chevy Volt.
This plant was one of several GM plants served by Canadian National (then known as Grand Trunk Western) in Detroit, Flint and Pontiac. At the time, Grand Trunk Corporation (GTW, GT, DWP, and CV) had its corporate headquarters in Detroit, first in the financial district and later on at the site of the demolished Stroh brewery.
Mr. McFarlane presents an interesting question. Whats happened is car design has followed that of the imports. There is no distinction between within the current sea of black, silver and white egg shaped cars. When conformity prevails capitalism doesn’t shine quite as bright.
Top of the hour radio reports stated the plants were closing to allow GM to concentrate on electric and driverless cars. If that’s true the situation is truly for a misguided GM.