Another Plant Bites The Dust
The ongoing conflict between American Axle and Manufacturing Holdings and United Automobile Workers (U.A.W.), has taken its toll on one more G.M. plant taking the total tally of shut down plants to seven.
On Thursday, G.M. temporarily ceased operations at one more assembly plant at Wentzville, Mo., near St. Lois, due to shortage of parts. The plant made GMC Savanna and Chevrolet Express vans and was manned by nearly 2,000 workers.
This desperate situation has occurred due to a fallout between American Axle, providers of parts to a number of automakers, a bulk of which go to G.M. , and U.A.W., with regards to salaries and other issues. This resulted in almost 3,600 U.A.W. workers leaving their jobs at five plants in Michigan and New York on Feb. 26th. American Axle had intended to cut wages by amounts nearing $14 an hour so that it could bring labour costs down to about $20-$30 an hour. They also wanted to drop the future retiree and pension benefits. This would make their terms and payments at par with those that U.A.W. have struck with in house axle makers for automotive makers such as Ford and Chrysler and similar to suppliers such as Dana Corporation and Delphi.
Though talks had resumed on Thursday afternoon, it did not stop further G.M. plants from being affected. Besides the Wentzville plant that had to be shut down on Thursday, the other plants that had to be put temporarily out of operation included an Indiana plant that manufactured Hummers for G.M. , a metal casting plant at Saginaw, Mich., an engine plant at Romulus, Mich., and another engine plant in Moraine, Ohio. , G.M.’s Toledo Transmission plant stopped making 4-speed transmissions and they had to cut production at their Janesville, Wis. Plant too.
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