General Motors decision to idle production at its Detroit-Hamtramck plant, which produces the Buick LaCrosse, Cadillac CT6 and Chevrolet Impala and Volt, has uprooted the lives of longtime employees as they take transfer offers or await news on the plant’s future.
Roughly 1,500 of the 2,800 United Auto Workers’ employees at Detroit-Hamtramck have taken transfer offers to move them to other GM plants in Michigan and Tennessee. GM, which is contractually obligated to offer the transfer positions, said it had around 2,700 transfer offers available for workers at the plant.
The Detroit News recently spoke to several of the employees who have been affected by GM’s decision to idle the plant, who told them it has caused confusion as they decide whether to take transfer offers or await GM’s announcement on the plant’s future.
One UAWÂ board member told The Detroit News the idling “has created a lot of uncertainty for our members about their future because they don’t know where they are going to have jobs at and how long they’ll have to wait to get to those jobs and if they’ll have to move to get to those jobs.”
Many workers at the Metro Detroit facility are single parents, UAW Local 22 President Celso Duque explained. “They really don’t have the option of leaving the state,” he said. “It’s putting a lot of burden on quite a few of our members.”
Production of the LaCrosse and Volt will end on March 1st, with the CT6 and Impala set to be discontinued a few months later on June 1st. GM has indicated the CT6 could live on, although it’s not clear where it would be sourcing vehicles from. The CT6 is also produced at a plant in Jinqiao, China right now, which builds vehicles for local consumption only.
GM has not provided an estimate for a return date for Detroit-Hamtramck workers.
(source: The Detroit News)
Comments
Cry me a river.
Every employee who isn’t in government or a union goes to work every day knowing it could be his last one on the job.
Don’t live hand to mouth.
Sorry, was my second sentence inaccurate?
Have you ever been fired or let go? Not having to worry much about that is a BIG deal.
Many have forgotten the huge area and vibrant neighborhoods leveled back in the early 80’s to build this plant also including the property that was the old Dodge Main plant. This is what happens when communities sell their soul to companies and provide tax exemptions to build there.
Serious question: were they forced to sell? I know NYC used urban blight laws to force people to sell to private developers. Either way, I have a lot more sympathy for them than the union leaders whose demands were a major factor in driving the American auto industry into the ground (I was a GM stockholder for 40 years before bankruptcy, so yes, I’m bitter).
Considering what happened to other parts of Detroit, they may have been (financially) lucky to get out before the city’s collapse.