General Motors‘ various truck plants are working overtime to replenish the automaker’s pickup truck supply, which was partially drained during the 40-day UAW strike.
According to The Detroit News, GM has implemented mandatory Sunday overtime at Flint Assembly in Michigan until December 21st. The plant, which builds the Chevrolet Silverado HD and GMC Sierra HD, was already running three shifts, six days a week, but now it’s churning out pickups all seven days of the week.
2021 Chevrolet Silverado HD
Fort Wayne Assembly, which builds the light-duty Silverado 1500 and Sierra 1500, is running at three shifts five days a week and two Saturdays every month. It was also up and running this past Sunday, The Detroit News indicates. It’s not clear if the automaker’s Silao Assembly plant in Mexico was also working overtime, though it was also impacted by the UAW strike due to parts shortages.
Flint Plant Manager Mike Perez and UAW Chairman Eric Welter also wrote a memo to Flint employees in late November, notifying them of the need for more pickups.
“The bottom line is our customers cannot and will not wait any longer to make a purchase,” the memo said. “As a leadership team, we feel it is crucial to act now to identify a scheduling solution that will help feed market demand without compromising the quality and safety of our team.”
GM is rushing to ensure it has a strong pickup supply, as it may risk losing customers to Ford and Ram. Pickups are also making up the bulk of GM’s business right now, with the automaker slowly turning its back on passenger cars in favor of more profitable trucks, crossovers and SUVs.
“This is a very competitive segment and we certainly don’t want customers going to another brand just because we are short on inventory,” GM Spokesman Dan Flores said in a statement. “It’s in our best interest as a GM team to meet the demand while it’s there.”
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Comments
Lol Risk losing customers to ford and ram iam sorry but they have already done that
They should work on building vehicles with an operating transmission.
The strike couldn’t have come at a more critical time. This time is the year is when farmers and business owners spend money. The area GM dealers have precious few HD trucks specifically to sell. The dealer I buy from has two HD’s sitting on their lot right now or did last weekend (they typically would have 15-20 HD’s). It is ironic and sad that on top of losing money during the strike, they are now paying over time to get back on track. The bleeding continues.
Yeah sad GM didn’t give them workers a good enough contract to keep working. They make enough money to treat their employees right. If they would’ve just agreed to fair terms none of this would be an issue.
They have built OR sold no dually HD pick up trucks. Delays from summer to December to what dealers are quoting as March! Well may as wait.till 2021 for the once upon a time interior upgrade to NO upgrade was decided or needed. ’21 models will only get camera tweaks…. starting to look at the competitor’s line up.
Chuck
I work at a small dealership and own a Yukon with a bad transmission. They replaced the transmission in October 2018 and now I have the same problems again. My high dollar vehicle feels like I’m driving on rumble strips most of the time. If I complain to GM it reflects badly for our dealership. In my 27 years here I’ve never been so frustrated.
btw.. I think we have 3 2500’s
— ok, um, what is the excuse for the 127 Silverado 1500’s from 2019 still
sitting parked on every Chevy lot? And, they’re all crew cab. Ok, most people
want the crew I guess. But this glut isn’t going anywhere too fast, so I see
some strange Spring sales coming. jmo…
Does anybody really like the looks of these New Silverados? I think they have really dropped the ball on this new body style. Gmc or ram looks much better!
I have a sierra Denali Ultimate with a 6.2 liter engine and a 10 speed transition. It’s been sitting at the dealership since August 11th with the transition pulled out of it. Why rush to build more lemons?
Wow. I thought I had it bad. Hopefully, you get it back soon.
Someone hit my 2019 Silverado less than 2 weeks after I got it. I’ve been waiting for over 3 weeks just to get a headlight assembly with no ETA on parts. I’ve owned 4 chevys, 2 new and 2 used, since 2013. I’ve been assigned to a Senior GM advisor, but that isn’t helping much. I just hope the parts for my truck come in before the company goes bankrupt. Not that they will, but they handled the strike very poorly and I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t make it through the next recession.
Oshawa Assembly built out its last GMC truck today as the GM Corporation closes the award winning, cost effective operation With virtually a new paint shop, after for 100 years in Oshawa .They could build as many as you want tomorrow just allocate it, if you want a quality build on either GM passenger or trucks we have a flex line c’mon up eh!