Tag: Plants

GM Workers Anticipate Layoffs

Workers and Wall Street were anxiously awaiting the news out of General Motors Corp.’s annual meeting this morning, with expectations that the beleaguered automaker will announce more restructuring measures that could further reduce the number of jobs and even idle factories in an attempt to improve its sales and financial results.

For workers at GM’s truck plants, that has meant wondering whether there would still be jobs to report to following the next round of change.

In its announcement today, the automaker is expected to give those plans more clarity by announcing plans to increase the production of small and midsize cars at its assembly plants in Orion Township and Lordstown, Ohio, even as it takes steps to further reduce production at some GM truck plants.

Workers at Orion Township and Lordstown are hoping for increased car production, added shifts and the promise of new models.

Analysts and economists have said they wouldn’t be surprised to see cuts at a Michigan plant — in Flint or Pontiac — or those in Janesville, Wis., or Moraine, Ohio.

GM is not commenting on the planned announcements, though spokesman Tom Wilkinson has said that the company has no big salaried layoffs in the works.

American Axel Workers Return To Work

Production resumed Tuesday at American Axle & Manufacturing Inc., as workers at five of the company’s U.S. plants returned to work after ratifying a concessionary contract that ended a three-month strike against the Detroit supplier

Work began with the plant’s first shift at 7 a.m. Tuesday. While it’s unclear how many workers returned to work, what is certain is not all workers were called back Tuesday.

At the company’s Detroit axle plant, it was mainly workers who set up machinery who returned to work, said Adrian King, president of UAW Local 235, which represents about 2,000 workers there.

More workers are expected to be called back throughout the week and early next week, as the company ramps up production.

Henry Nelson, 56, of Southfield is to return to work in Detroit tonight. Nelson said that his attitude will be negative.

“I used to have a positive attitude” and “tried to keep things going,” said Nelson, a millwright who, before the strike, was used to doing odd jobs that weren’t required of him.

With the prospect of a pay cut, Nelson said he won’t have the incentive to go the extra mile.

“It’s a different attitude,” said Nelson, who plans to take a buyout or retirement package.

Sorry to see the workers having to go back to work and lose all the progress that had been made in the past.  AAM stock rose and that is the answer to everything…..profits, not the workers, who by the way create ALL the corporations wealth.