SUV Deathwatch: GM Shuts Down More Plants, Sheds Thousands of Jobs
by Stacy Feldman - Oct 15th, 2008
in
Things are going from bad to worse for the US auto industry. Especially for GM. The latest:
The company announced that it will close two SUV plants in Wisconsin and Ohio on December 23. That's two years ahead of schedule. Combined job losses: about 2,500.
On top of that, it will shutter a metal stamping plant in Michigan by the end of ‘09. Job losses: about 1,340.
More closures are coming. And a merger with Chrysler could be too. God knows, the resultant job losses would be mammoth.
So what happened?
The Detroit Three made the SUV its central profit center. Fatal mistake. The gas hog is essentially dead, on the ash heap of car history. And GM, at least, may not be far behind.
The sad part is that the writing was on the wall for several years, as SUV sales tanked quarter after quarter. But the US auto industry kept failing to respond to the consumer's value of fuel economy. And thus failed to compete, while others snatched up lucrative slices of the small car market share.
Time to learn from Detroit's mistakes, America.
Meaning that it's time to innovate the nation out of jobs decline and financial downturn and into jobs growth -- into the already inevitable new energy economy.
Like many states are doing. Take this news out of Colorado today: Green jobs total 90,000.
That accomplishment was the result of one governor's push to make renewable energy and energy efficiency economic priorities in his state.
Now, imagine if leaders in Washington joined with all 50 states in establishing a national green stimulus policy. We’re talking a systematic development of renewable energy in the whole of the US that would help solve climate and power massive jobs growth.
Wishful thinking?
No, not anymore, not if this new poll is anything to go by. Remember: it's the next president who has the opportunity to shape this revolutionary change.
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Due to economic mood swing,
Due to economic mood swing, it seems that everyday a new American industry is asking from the government a bailout plan just to save it. And it includes the auto industry, which is one of the affected American industries and cutting a huge number of their workers just to keep it afloat. As a result of this, the unemployment rate jumped from 7. 2 to 7.6 last January and left more people on the brink of financial collapse and in need of payday loans. Payday loans are short term loans, available in most countries like the UK and the U.S., that are made over a two to three week period, and usually come with a finance fee of $15 to $30 per $100 loaned. Whatever your short term need is caused from, if you are gainfully employed and have an open checking account, short term credit may be available to you. You should definitely look into getting payday loans if you need them.
uh...some fact checking
uh...some fact checking needed here. The early closure of the plants you mention are one year ahead of schedule and not two years although it is certainly not a positive development either way and you are right that many jobs will be lost earlier than expected. And it is quite certain you would be surprised to know that no automaker has invested more money in the u.s. to build large suv's and trucks in the last decade than toyota. which is why their 2 billion dollar new truck plant in san antonio is sitting idle until the end of the year (maybe longer) as is their plant in princeton, Indiana and their new big suv plant in mississippi is being re-tooled now to build the prius before it ever assembled one SUV. And while you are correct that the market for SUV's has and is shrinking, GM's share of it has actually gone up meaning their losses are not quite as bad as you imagine and that those few who do still need suv's find their offerings of great quality. Further, while you can make a good argument that GM may have depended too much on the large more profitable trucks you would be remiss to ignore their investment in superb quality cars which started well over 5 years ago to get the Saturn Aura to Car of the Year award winner in 2007 or the Chevy Malibu to Car of the Year status in 2008 or the CTS as motor trend car of the year also this year. While the Aura is admittedly not a hot seller the malibu and the cts are and you will be hard pressed to find a bad review of any of these vehicles. Your overall premise may have some truth but your presentation that lacks research or facts, if not changed, will forever keep you in the blog-with-a-point-of-view-whose-facts-can't-be-trusted ranks.
Nothing Wrong with the Facts, Sergeant Friday
You add a number of facts to the story but they don't change the essential story here: job losses and plant closings of a recalcitrant industry that just got a $25 billion bailout from Congress.
Car of the Year? That's kind of irrelevant in the big picture. That award and a four-letter word about global warming will buy you a cup of coffee with Bob Lutz.
$25 billion used to be a real chunk of change -- until Wall Street showed the world how bad things can get, and it's still getting worse.
You don't like the point of view, that's fine. Welcome to the blogosphere. But the facts stand up. So do yours, I imagine, but they don't change the narrative.
Let's see what Detroit does with taxpayer's money, now that their shareholders are tapped out.
The Ohio plant that builds
The Ohio plant that builds the TrailBlazer/Envoy is closing two years ahead of schedule. The Janesville, Wisconsin plant that builds the GMC Yukon and Chevrolet Tahoe was also slated to close two years from now.
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