Posted on 06/03/2008 7:45:18 AM PDT by tobyhill
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — General Motors is closing four truck and SUV plants in the U.S., Canada and Mexico as surging fuel prices hasten a dramatic shift to smaller vehicles.
CEO Rick Wagoner said Tuesday before the automaker's annual meeting in Delaware the plants to be closed are in Oshawa, Ontario; Moraine, Ohio; Janesville, Wis.; and Toluca, Mexico. He also said the iconic Hummer brand will be reviewed and potentially sold or revamped.
Wagoner said the GM board has approved production of a new small Chevrolet car at a plant in Lordstown, Ohio, in mid-2010 and the Chevy Volt electric vehicle in Detroit.
Wagoner announced the moves in response to slumping sales of pickups and SUVs brought on by high oil prices. He said a market shift to smaller vehicles is permanent.
GM shares rose 25 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $17.69 in morning trading.
The cuts will affect about 2,500 workers at each of the four facilities, although Wagoner did not know exact numbers. Many will be able to take openings created when 19,000 more U.S. hourly workers leave later this year through early retirement and buyout offers.
He said the company has no plans to allocate products to the four plants in the future.
"We really would not foresee the likely prospect of new products in the plants that we're announcing today that we'll cease production in," he told a Moraine, Ohio, city official who asked a question in a telephone conference call.
(Excerpt) Read more at ap.google.com ...
I paid $92.31 to fill my half ton Chevy. I paid $134.09 for my diesel.
My local Dodge dealer has just started to refuse to take in larger SUV's on trade. Can't even get rid of them at the large auto auctions.
Democrat anti-drilling policies are causing the loss of Democrat union jobs. Cue the violins.
Why do you think gas is $4 a gallon when we have 112 billion barrels of oil here at home?
Gee, I wonder why gas is $4 a gallon?
Since some people by trucks for fashin rather than for need, and since some people are no longer buying trucks for fashion, there is a reduced demand.
Some people are always gonna need trucks, though.
Thanks the futures market and the AFL-CIO for this.
I don’t care if it gets to $10 a gallon, I will always own a truck. Not a 12mpg truck, mind you, but still a full-sized truck.
If this CEO had made a move like this after Katrina, GM would in a much stronger position today.
The local refinery [Foothills] is for sale. The State is thinking about buying it, which is probably an ill-advised idea from the Republican faction currently out of power [not the Palin faction]. The refinery is not making money although they have 175 employees and process 200,000 bpd. Big chance for the right owner.
Sounds like a PCI / Sarbanes-Oxley Audit compliance check.
You're correct, but algore is just a piece of the puzzle.
It is socialism that is determined to destroy the US ... which should be taken as a personal assault because it is we, the people that make America.
They learned very early on how to get and control the freedom of the press(es).
It all looks and sounds so righteous, so American ... but if all the outlets are examined .. print, radio and TV ... the percentage of "reports" that promote America is so very small.
You are right about the fashion statment. Never could figure why people buy a pickup for regular communting use (not for hauling or job use). They can rent a pickup from Lowes for $19.99 per day of they neeed one to haul their lumber home for their DIY project.
The futures market could actually correct itself if the long term speculators had confidence that we were in the future going after our own supplies.
Huh??? Why should I blame myself for $4 a gallon gas? What's the difference what I drive? A twenty gallon tank on an SUV costs as much to fill as a twenty gallon tank on econobox.
It's not ridiculous. Those expensive additives to lower "greenhouse emissions" mandated by the envirowacko brigade, as well as those massive gas taxes which out state legislatures ALSO continually mandate; yeah, they're the same - in part, the excuse often runs, to find cleaner fuel alternatives and always to help pay union workers to continually come back and fix their bad maintenance jobs "for the children" if part of the reason our fuel prices are so high.
Growing demand, shrinking supply. Why do YOU think it’s $4/gallon? Hint: It’s not “global warming” or “big oil”.
ANY company with any sense would HAVE to do something about the parasitic Unions feeding off them.. Probably mostly why american industry has gone overseas..
The truth "IS"......... its the UNIONS costing all the jobs.. American UNIONS including the Government Workers Union are VAMPIRES.. sucking the life out of a company..
The Government Workers Union(s) and the other Unions FEED off the economy thru socialism.. Right to work STates are a last ditch effort to combat the UNIONS... I am surpassed it took GM and Ford this long to be forced into survival mode..
WIll the UNIONS be blamed for the job loss?.. Probably NOT.. But thats what needs to happen.. Little wonder the Unions and the democrat party are allies.. They are both VAMPIRES.. YES your democrat old gramma is a political VAMPIRE.. THERE now I said it.,. its true..
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