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Update: GM plant closing stuns pols
Reaction by state politicians was swift when General Motors announced Tuesday it was closing the Janesville truck and SUV plant, putting 2,600 employees out of work.
"It's a tragedy that General Motors plans to close its plant in Janesville, leaving behind thousands of skilled and dedicated employees," said U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis.
"The community of Janesville depends on these jobs, and I will do everything in my power to convince General Motors to reconsider their decision or help their employees find new work."
The Janesville production facility, the oldest of the Detroit automaker's factories with production dating back to 1919, will stop making SUVs and pickup trucks by no later than the end of 2010 and most likely by the end of 2009, unless market demand improves, GM Chairman Rick Wagoner announced Tuesday.
Janesville is one of four GM plants making bigger vehicles to be phased out.
U.S. Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin) said the people of Janesville "poured their heart and soul into General Motors."
Feingold said all will be done by local, state and U.S. officials to try to support "a continuing GM presence" in Janesville.
"The people of Janesville have worked too hard for too long to deserve anything less," Feingold said.
U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin), a native of Janesville, said the news was "gut-wrenching."
"Growing up and living in Janesville, this (closing) was something we've always feared," Ryan said. "My thoughts and prayers are with the workers and their families, many of whom I've grown up with and am still close friends with."
Janesville will survive, the congressman said.
"I have faith that our community will pull together to support one another in the difficult days ahead," Ryan said.
State Sen. Judy Robson, D-Beloit, who represents the Janesville area in the 15th District, tried to find some positive out of the dark news from GM.
"This is devastating news for Janesville and the region, but we have the wherewithal to pick ourselves up and fill the void left by the loss of these manufacturing jobs," Robson said. "My heart goes out to the workers and families whose futures are thrown into uncertainty, not only GM workers but those who work for GM suppliers and so many local businesses whose fortunes go hand in hand with GM.
"We will do everything we can at the state level to cushion the blow with job retraining and aggressive redevelopment efforts. We have a can-do spirit that can overcome this blow."
Gov. Jim Doyle issued a statement Thursday afternoon about the pending closure, calling the announcement "tough to stomach," but noting that it should've been clear that GM wasn't focused on the future."Bad corporate decision kept these lines turning out gas guzzlers as fuel prices went from 2 dollars to 3 dollars and now to 4 dollars per gallon.
"Now we stand here, carrying the burden of those bad corporate decisions -- failed leadership that culminated in a calculation that left out the very heart of this company, the workers who built"
The Associated Press reported that Janesville City Manager Steve Sheiffer said even if GM is ending truck and SUV production in Janesville, it doesn't mean other product lines couldn't come to town.
"To me, the legacy isn't over yet," Sheiffer said. "The legacy continues, the only question is what's next."
Cutbacks have been regular at the GM plant in Janesville for the past several years.
Last week, about 600 of the company's 2,600 Janesville employees told GM they would take a corporate buyout, according to UAW Local 95 officials.
GM plans to eliminate one of two shifts in July; it isn't known at this time if the shift cutback will remain in place.
Wagoner announced the moves in response to slumping sales of pickups and SUVs brought on by high oil prices. He says a market shift to smaller vehicles is permanent.
Wagoner said the company will build a new small car in Lordstown, Ohio, in mid-2010. And it will add shifts at car plants in Lordstown and Orion Township, Mich.
The announcement is an economic blow to Janesville, which has long been entwined with auto making. The sprawling GM plant has survived the Depression, a world war, and GM's major layoffs in the 1980s, but it will not escape the latest round of corporate belt-tightening.
"There were some tears and a lot of people were kind of ticked off, but it's part of the business," said Scott Lambert, 39, who has worked at the plant for 13 years.
He said he was headed to buy an atlas to figure where other GM plants were that might be hiring.
The plant was long the largest employer in Janesville, a city of 60,000 about 100 miles northwest of Chicago. But cutbacks have shrunk the workforce to about 2,600, so it's no longer the city's biggest employer. Mercy Health Care now holds that title.
The company's employees and payroll have been shrinking over the years as the industry suffered, said Doug Venable, Janesville's director of economic development. In 2007, GM had an average of nearly 2,800 workers and a payroll worth $229 million, he said. That's down from a payroll of $330 million for 4,100 employees in 2003.
"There's always been uncertainty in the economy about GM and obviously there's a lot more uncertainty than there was five years ago, so it's just one of those things that you deal with," he said.
File photo
A worker operates equipment on the SUV assembly line at General Motors in Janesville in 2006.
