GM plant closing

General Motors said Monday that it would close 14 plants, including seven in Michigan, as part of its restructuring in bankruptcy.

AK Steel Corp. stands to lose more than $9 million as a direct result of General Motors Corp.’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, and indirect losses could push the total much higher.

The plan includes GM’s total number of stamping; powertrain, and assembly facilities in the United States reduce from 47 in 2008 right down to 33 at the end of 2012. In total 14 U.S. manufacturing plants will be impacted.

Here again is the full 2009 list of GM Plant Closings. The GM Plant Closings today have prompted some GM longtime employees to vow to relocate their families if their plant is hit on the closure list.

Some employees say they are too old to start looking for another job, others say they will relocate to provide for their families.

Debbie Norris, 47, tells local press that if her plant gets closed, it will be her third GM closure, yet she will relocate to wherever GM has openings.

“When you’ve got to make money for your family, you do whatever it takes”

Here again is the complete GM Plant Closings List:

U.S. GM Plant Actions
Plant Status / Timing (date listed or sooner depending on market demand)

Assembly
Orion, Mich. Standby Capacity - September 2009
Pontiac, Mich. Close - October 2009
Spring Hill, Tenn. Standby Capacity - November 2009
Wilmington, Del. Close - July 2009

Stamping
Grand Rapids, Mich. Close - June 2009 (previously announced)
Indianapolis, Ind. Close - December 2011
Mansfield, Ohio Close - June 2010
Pontiac, Mich. Standby Capacity - December 2010

Powertrain
Livonia Engine, Mich. Close - June 2010
Flint North Components, Mich. Close - December 2010
Willow Run Site, Mich. Close - December 2010
Parma Components, Ohio Close - December 2010
Fredericksburg Components, Va. Close - December 2010
Massena Castings, N.Y. Closed - May 1, 2009 (previously announced)



Warehousing & Parts Distribution Centers
Boston, Mass. Close – December 31, 2009
Jacksonville, Fla. Close – December 31, 2009
Columbus, Ohio Close – December 31, 2009

United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger said today the government could not allow General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC to fail, and expressed confidence both will rebound.

Gettelfinger, in an interview this morning on WJR radio in Detroit, said GM will announce later today the 14 plants it intends to close by the end of next year. Several Michigan plants are expected to be on the list.

The Detroit automakers are too vital to the economy, Gettelfinger said, as GM filed the paperwork for bankruptcy protection in New York. Many of the workers learned of the closings as they arrived at work.

The plants being closed include the Willow Run transmission plant in Ypsilanti, Mich., where 42,000 workers built B-24 bombers during World War II, and the former Saturn assembly plant in Spring Hill, Tenn., that used to invite thousands of car buyers to “homecoming” celebrations.

The closings will displace 18,000 to 20,000 G.M. employees, the company said.

"I was angry at first, then I cried, and I got angry again," said Don Skidmore, the president of U.A.W. Local 735, which represents workers at the Willow Run plant. “Then I thought, let’s just get back to work and see what we can do.”

The 1,100 workers left at the mile-long plant, originally built by Ford, were told Monday that it will close in December 2010.

"I’m hurt for the people," Mr. Skidmore said. "The looks on their faces were horrible."

The Spring Hill plant, along with an assembly plant in Orion, Mich., and a nearby metal-stamping plant, will be placed on “standby” this fall, meaning that they could reopen if needed to support an increase in vehicle demand. One of the two assembly plants on standby is expected to be retooled so that it can build up to 160,000 small cars a year, though no date was given for that to occur.

G.M. said it will close a plant that builds convertibles in Wilmington, Del., next month and a pickup truck plant in Pontiac, Mich., in October. The metal-stamping and powertrain plants on the list, with the exception of two that already had been announced, will close after June 2010.

In addition to the 14 plants, three parts distribution warehouses — in Boston; Jacksonville, Fla.; and Columbus, Ohio — will close in December.

The closings will leave G.M. with 33 plants in the United States by 2012, down from 47 last year. G.M. is cutting about 21,800 hourly jobs by 2011, though it did not say how many people currently work at the plants being closed.

G.M. said it will reach “full capacity utilization of its assembly operations” in 2011, two years sooner than called for in the restructuring plan it filed with the federal government in February.

“Our manufacturing operations, which already are among the most productive in the industry, will emerge even leaner, stronger and more flexible, as part of the New G.M.,” Gary Cowger, G.M.’s group vice president for global manufacturing and labor relations, said in a statement. “Flexible manufacturing enables us to quickly respond to consumer preferences and changing market conditions.”

In an interview Monday on CNBC, the U.A.W.’s president, Ron Gettelfinger, said the closings should get G.M. to the floor of making 10 million cars a year, the level expected to make G.M. profitable.

“We hopeful that this will take care of it,” Mr. Gettelfinger said, “but there has been a lot of sacrifice to get to this point.”

Plants due to close continued to churn out cars and trucks throughout the day, Tim Lee, vice president for manufacturing at G.M. North America, told The Associated Press. When Chrysler filed for bankruptcy protection April 30, its plants went idle almost immediately, with workers leaving their shifts early.

"We’re running business as usual this morning," Mr. Lee said. "Our operations will be ongoing; we have customer orders to fill and great products to make."

The top three creditors are:

• Wilmington Trust Co., with $22.8 billion in bond debt;

• The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America — or UAW — with $20.6 billion in employee obligations; and

• Deutsche Bank AG, with $4.4 billion in bond debt.

The top 50 creditors have more than $50 billion in claims.

Also as a part of its bankruptcy filing, GM submitted a list of plants it will close or idle. GM’s local operations were not on the list.

DMAX Ltd., a diesel engine producer that is a joint venture between GM and Isuzu Motors Ltd., is expected to keep its Moraine plant open. The plant stopped production May 18 for seven weeks.

GM also operates a parts and service facility in West Chester that was not on the closure list.

Three Ohio facilities were on the list including: a service and parts distribution center in Columbus closing at the end of this year, a powertrain plant outside of Cleveland closing in December 2010 and a metal stamping plant in Mansfield set to close in June 2010.