While workers from the Lordstown plant area send out letters from schoolchildren asking GM CEO Mary Barra to reconsider idling the facility, the UAW was also busy last week in Michigan.
Automotive News (subscription required) reported last Friday that the union delivered 4,000 letters from local Michigan communities over the plans to idle the Detroit-Hamtramck plant. The plant is one of four facilities GM plans to idle across the U.S., which also includes two transmission plants in Michigan and Maryland and the Lordstown plant in Ohio.
The UAW pressed members to tell their stories in the letters and describe how the potential closure of the plant will affect their families and the community. Some called out the fact Barra oversaw the Detroit-Hamtramck plant herself from 2003 to 2004.
“We did what we were supposed to do when you were plant manager at our plant and did what we had to do to make GM survive,” one member wrote. “Mary, have you forgot about the family?” the letter added.
The letters were brought to the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center, GM’s headquarters, before the UAW hand-delivered the thousands of messages to the automaker personally.
GM has said the restructuring will not unforgiving and declared there are currently 2,700 open positions at other plants that need workers. Some workers have already applied for transfers, but the UAW has said not every employee can uproot so easily and move across the country to plants where there’s a demand for workers.
At the Detroit-Hamtramck plant, 1,500 workers are at risk of being laid off, transferred, or early retirement.
The fate of the plant and the other three U.S. facilities will be decided next year as the UAW and GM hash out a new labor contract.
Comments
Mary is screwing up the employ’s the customer’s the products and America . they all seat up in their offices ,paid more money than their worth ,bring home outrageous bonuses ,out of touch with the working man / woman who worked hard for their company . yes the market has changed BUT not all customers want a SUV someone in those offices have to consider this and all you are doing is loosing them to other imports . I’M SORRY FOR THE WORKERS WHO HAVE RECIEVED PINK SLIPS HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HOPE THE COMING NEW YEAR TURNS AROUND FOR THE BETTER
The people who have the power to keep the plants allocated don’t care…GM won’t allocate unless they receive generous incentives…
I’m not trying to be a doom and gloom poster, but it is very upsetting to see GM do this. I don’t care if GM has plants in Mexico. But when they just drop 15,000 workers and other countries are benefiting from it. It puts a sour taste in Americans. I thinks going to hurt their image and especially when not even 10 years ago we stood by their side as tax payers. It’s not about holding that over GM, but if they foreseen the movement from cars to crossovers a year or two or maybe even 3 years ago why did they not make production in the US priority?
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, that’s fine. You could agree or agree to disagree. As a patriot I just don’t like the decision GM has been doing. Did they hire Old GM strategists?? Make GM mediocre again?
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