Sep 23 2003
Auto giant General Motors and the United Auto Workers have finally reached a tentative agreement, which it is hoped will form the basis for a four year labour agreement.
Under the terms of the agreement, GM has three sites it pans to close:
- An assembly plant in Baltimore
- A powertrain plant in Saginaw
- The Argonaut office building in Detroit
Of the three, the Baltimore plant would appear to be a certainty as it has no work scheduled for it past 2005.
In addition to the closures, Delphi, a company that GM spun off in 1999 floated the idea of consolidating its operations by combining six of its facilities to form three. While the idea was rejected, they plan to raise it again in the future.
Cost cutting for North American auto makers is a necessity, as they battle increased competitiveness from Asian and European counterparts. To this end, other major players in the region, namely Ford and Chrysler also plan plant closures in an attempt to reduce overheads and realign supply and demand.
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Posted September 22nd. 2003