At 10:45 am Adelaide time, the very last product of GM’s Holden Elizabeth manufacturing plant rolled off the assembly line, putting a cap on nearly 70 years of Australian Holden production. That car is a VFII Holden Commodore SSV Redline sedan with a 408-horsepower, 6.2-liter LS3 V8 – a fittingly impressive vehicle to close out the plant’s long, proud manufacturing tradition.
The GM-Holden Elizabeth plant celebrated its many years of accomplishments with a private ceremony for employees. The GM subsidiary will keep some 1,000 people on staff, including in Design and Engineering, and its Lang Lang Vehicle Proving Ground will remain open, but for the marque’s manufacturing workers, today marks a definitive end. If there is a bright spot, it’s that “85 per cent of all workers to date [are] successfully transitioning” elsewhere, according to Holden Chairman and Managing Director Mark Bernhard.
Holden’s employee transition center on the Elizabeth site will remain open for at least another two years, helping Holden and supply chain employees to find work.
“Treating our people with dignity and respect was always our number one priority during this transition and we’re all proud we were able to achieve that, we see it as recognition of their dedicated service over the years,” says Mark Bernhard. “Today… is about paying tribute to the generations of men and women across Holden and our supply network who have given so much to our company.
“Holden is the icon it is today only because of these passionate people. On behalf of everyone at Holden, I thank you for your service from the bottom of my heart.”
Holden can boast of being the second-oldest transportation company in the world, having started as a saddlery business in 1856. The company built its first mass-produced car – the 48-215 – on November 26th, 1948. More than 7.6 million Holden cars have been built in Australia since.
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Aussies can now support only workers from other countries. China, Thailand, Germany, Japan, Mexico, the USA, and a few others thank you!
Notice there was no Devereux, Reuss or Jacoby there with the Holden workers on the last day. GM chose to throw an Aussie under the bus to oversee the closure of one of our National icons. Not a great thing to have on your resume.
Spot on, I’m angry at Deveraux because he seemed very unsympathetic when I got home and watched him on the telly announcing the closure and extremely angry at Jacoby for the lack of understanding as we was the main decision maker for the closure of Holden’s manufacturing operations.
Holden didn’t shut down because of anybody employed by GM. Holden shut down because Rupert Murdoch put Toxic Tony Abbott in charge of Oz and Abbott was a mad British monk who was literally dumber than any Dunning-Kruger scale could show. GM said they would match every Aussie taxpayer’s dollar with three of its own invested.
From Sydney Morning Herald 2013:
“The Coalition took a policy to September’s election that it would cut $500 million out of the Automotive Transformation Scheme, the main source of government funding to car makers in Australia. Abbott said “it was the job of government to make business easier, ”not chase them down the road waving a blank cheque at them”.
An angry South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill accused sections of the federal government of deliberately undermining the process to secure Holden’s future.
”It’s their intention through their actions to undermine the environment in which Holden is going to make a decision about its future,” Mr Weatherill said on Friday.
”They want to create the most hostile environment so that Holden will actually take the decision out of their hands by just simply closing.”
Mr Weatherill said he had spoken to Holden boss Mike Devereux who had rejected the reports and reaffirmed that no decision had yet been made.
He said the leaks to the media were calculated to not only undermine Holden’s confidence in the future, but public confidence. ”They’re trying to shift the blame to Holden,” he said. ”They’re saying it’s all over to Holden.’’
Labor attacked the government, saying negotiations over Holden and Toyota staying in Australia had descended into chaos.
”Far from the calm and methodical Government Mr Abbott promised, we are seeing nothing more than division and dysfunction, with Australia’s automotive industry the latest victim,” industry spokesman Kim Carr said.
It has long been known that the economic dries in the Liberal Party, including powerful economic ministers such as the Treasurer Joe Hockey, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, and Infrastructure Minister Jamie Briggs, favour withdrawing support on the grounds that the industry should sink or swim on its own merits.“
Spot on OT. Talkbull and his cronies continue the bastardry started by his predecessor.
I know nothing about Australian politics and have no wish to… but presumably somebody elected this Toxic Tony guy? 😉
They did, I didn’t.
Yeah mate, Rupert Murdoch elected Abbott. Just like Putin elected Trump by electing Hillary in the Primaries (a true 2016 election would have been Elizabeth Warren vs Jeb Bush, with Warren winning in a landslide), and King George VII was elected by a sperm in Kate’s womb.
Elections have failed democracy badly, because they can be controlled by skeleton/closet lists held by powerful folk like J Edgar Hoover, and now Murdoch, and Putin who probably got his skeleton/closet list by getting Assange to steal it from Murdoch. Murdoch’s phone-hacking scandal got him far more nervous than anything else in his life, because phone-hacking was Rupert’s key tool in getting his skeleton/closet list.
True democracy now needs sortition. Random selection of normal citizens who have absolutely no connection to the decisions that they must make, proposed by John Ralston Saul, and also proved viable in several cities in Ancient Greece and modern day Italy where sortition is literally the only protection Italian people have against the Vatican’s rapacious business practices in Italy. Machiavelli has been proved right again and again, when politicians owe favors to get elected, once elected they only ever spend time paying back the favors. Random lot-choice means zero favors owed, and the people selected have moral pressure to choose the best alternative, not the most-favored alternative.
You think I’m stupid, of course, but now think about this: do you want courts without juries? Juries have proved the value of sortition every day for centuries. You want Only the judge deciding your fate? Well that’s what we have in government right now. Democracy it ain’t.
Best proof? Aussie electoral technicalities resulted in the random selection of Ricky Muir from the Motoring Enthusiasts’ Party, surely a political organization we can all get behind here on GMA. His policies were very right wing before he got lucky. After he was selected, and spent time in parliament with professional pollies, his views rapidly swung left, and his was the key swing vote to stop Australia giving US style Education loans to swamp Aussie kids like Americans with lifelong debt. Thanks Ricky!
What a great day in the history of GM! This day couldn’t come fast enough and will only make the future a much brighter one!
Opel was first Holden should be next! GM is better off without them!
Lets just hope Brian, for yours and your families sake that what happened to the workers here doesn’t happen in your workplace what ever that may be. From personal experience, I can tell you, it’s been devastating.
A very sad day for Australian manufacturing.
I understand both sides of the issue being foreign owned car company subsides and a desire to retain a vibrant and efficient manufacturing base. I think the Australian tax payers will be footing the bill for sovereign naval ship building capability over a vehicle assembly plan.
Either way being a life long time Holden devotee it is a dark day. Hopefully a new Chevy Camaro can fill the gap next to my SS?
It is a sad day in Australian history. It also shows how much th3 world has changed and no market it too big or small to fail.
While the piss and moan club want to Blame GM for everything the truth is the culprit is much bigger than GM.
The world has been globalized like it or not. It has touched us all and most not in a good way unless you are a second or third world market.
The truth is many politicians have tried to use labor, tax, trade and eviromental laws to force work to cheaper markets. This has opened competition up for cheaper labor.
Now couple this to the higher cost of development and the smaller markets it has killed their independence. In the larger markets it is killing brands and models.
GM did not start this and HM was the last to fight it as the last mfg to make a product of any scale for Australia.
Other markets like America have lost work. We have lost brands like Pontiac etc. and we have even lost some companies. We will lose more yet if things continue.
The future is not going to be easy or painless. There are some politicians who fight this but often they are trashed in the media because the media is owned and the politician is a political outsider. We see this in the states and Europe. It knows no political party as the are all part of it.
They are working to make lesser markets competitive and weaken stronger markets.
We all have to relearn to compete again.
Times are going to be tough in America but even tougher down under as you do not hold the scale of market to help leverage production of independent products.
Sad to say they may be importing Vegemite by the time this is over.
Time to really learn what the people you vote for support and take back your countries.
The auto industry down under results are more a symptom to a much larger issue.